After splitting with Canisius, Oklahoma State sweeps Wildcats.
The Wildcats suffered a 1-4 week, including opening the Big 12 season by getting swept by Oklahoma State in Stillwater. K-State went 5-5 overall during the last two weeks.
Here’s how the week shook out.
Tuesday: The Wildcats (11-13) were supposed to have a relatively easy, two-game, pre-Big 12 tune-up against Canisius (5-15). It didn’t turn out that way.
The Golden Griffins dominated the Wildcats on Tuesday, winning 15-3.
Wednesday: The outcome was positive on Wednesday–but just barely–as State bounced back to win, 6-5. The Wildcats had to hold off late rallies to seal the win. Starter and left-hander Joey Martin (2-0) picked up the win, throwing the 3 2/3 innings. Coach Pete Hughes again decided to use one of his position players, Dylan Phillips, in relief–only to see him give up two runs right away. Andrew Stratman put out the fire in the 9th inning to rack up his first save of the season.
Offensively, the Wildcats showed more life, banging out eight hits, including a home run by first baseman Terrence Spurlin. Thomas Hughes, Will Brennan, and Chris Ceballos all hit doubles for the Wildcats.
Friday: K-State opened up Big 12 play by losing to OSU (15-7) 11-4. The Wildcats started Griffin Hassall due to Tyler Eckberg’s lingering arm injury. Hassall went up against Cowboy ace Jensen Elliot (3-0), and Hassall wasn’t good enough to carry the day. He went 3 1/3 innings before handing the ball over to the bullpen. Jaxson Passino entered the game and immediately had control issues, allowing six walks in 2 2/3 innings.
Passino wasn’t alone in his inability to find the strike zone.
K-State pitchers gave OSU batters 12 free passes on the day.
Saturday: The Wildcats tried bouncing back in Game 2, but fell in the end, 5-4. Once again, As was the case on Friday, the 8th inning doomed K-State. With the game tied at 4, the Cowboys scratched across the winning run on a sacrifice fly. Freshman Jordan Wicks (3-0) had another strong outing, going five innings and allowing three runs on five hits. Wicks also struck out a season-high eight batters.
Offensively, the storyline was simple: the Wildcats left too many runners on base, leaving the bases loaded twice and stranding a total of thirteen runners on the day.
Sunday: The Cowboys executed a series sweep, winning Game 3, 8-4. But the end didn’t look like the beginning. The Wildcats jumped on Cowboys’ starter Brett Standlee for four runs in the first two innings. But those were all the runs K-State would score on the day because the ‘Cats Will Brennan (1-4) couldn’t hold the lead. In 3 2/3 innings, Brennen allowed 7 runs (6 earned) on 8 hits and walked three.
And while the Wildcats’ bullpen was good the rest of the way (allowing only one run), the Cowboys’ pen was better–allowing only two hits over the last six innings.
NOTES
– The Wildcats scored four runs in each of the games against the Cowboys.
– The Wildcats have now lost 12 of their last 13 against the Cowboys, including back-to-back series sweeps.
– Chris Ceballos leads the Wildcats with 21 RBIs this year. Will Brennan leads the Wildcats with 12 doubles.
UP NEXT
–The Wildcats will play in-state rival Wichita St. (11-12) on Wednesday in Wichita.
–Over the weekend, K-State will host #13-ranked Texas Tech (15-6) in the Wildcats’ Big 12 home-series opener. The Wildcats were swept by the Red Raiders last year. K-State allowed a total of 56 runs in the three-game series–including two 20-plus run performances by TTU.
