Courtesy of Kansas State Athletics
MANHATTAN, Kan. – K-State returns to Tointon Family Stadium to host Wichita State in the first home-and-home series meeting on Tuesday night with game time slated for 6 p.m.
The Wildcats are coming off a historic Dillons Sunflower Showdown sweep over Kansas to enter the midweek game 24-14 overall. Wichita State is on a two-game winning streak after taking the series against Tulane for an overall 20-15 record.
Jackson Wentworth will head to the mound for the Wildcats on Tuesday with a record of 1-3.
Wichita State leads the all-time series 56-44 while K-State is 26-18 when playing at home.
The midweek game will be streamed on the Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and the ESPN app with radio coverage available on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM). Live streaming audio is available for the three-game series at KStateSports.com/watch and on the K-State Sports app.
With construction ongoing on the new Morgan Family Arena, parking for baseball games at Tointon Family Stadium will be impacted during the 2023 season.
Fans are advised to park in the west parking lot of Bill Snyder Stadium and do so by entering through Gate 3 via College Avenue across from Ascension Via Christi Hospital. Gate 1 and Gate 2 will be closed for the duration of the 2023 baseball season.
When proceeding to the stadium on foot, fans are advised to exit the west parking lot along the pedestrian path between Gate 1 and Gate 2 and then proceed to the stadium via the sidewalk along College Avenue.
Tickets are on sale for the entire 2023 season, starting at just $5 when purchased in advance at K-StateSports.com/Tickets, by calling 800-221-CATS or visiting the K-State Athletics Ticket Office.
GAME #39
K-STATE (24-14, 9-6 Big 12) vs. WICHITA STATE (20-15, 5-4 American)
Tuesday, April 17 | 6 p.m. | Tointon Family Stadium (2,331)
Projected Starters: RHP Jackson Wentworth v. TBD
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Radio: 1350AM/93.3/93.7FM
Listen Online: kstatesports.com/watch
Live Stats | Tickets
A LOOK AT K-STATE
The Wildcats look to expand their four-game winning streak as they enter week 24-14 overall after a Big 12 sweep over KU … Pete Hughes is in his fifth season at the helm and has compiled an 122-106 (.535) record during his time with Wildcats … Hughes is 774-598-3 (.564) in his 26 years as a head coach … K-State is slashing .273/.406/.467 as a team which includes 65 doubles, eight triples and 55 home runs with two starters hitting over .300 … K-State leads the nation in walks with 259 while ranking seventh in sacrifice flies (24) … Cash Rugely and Brady Day lead the offense each hitting .336 along with a team-high 35 walks each while combing for 81 RBI … Roberto Pena and Nick Goodwin have sent nine homers out of the ball park this season and rank second and third in RBI combing for 86 this season … Goodwin and Brendan Jones have started in all 38 games for K-State at shortstop and center field… Jones ranks second in the league with 21 stolen bases which ranks 21st in the nation … Goodwin leads the nation in sac flies with seven … As a team, the Wildcats are dangerous on the base path with a league-high 88 stolen bases which ranks 10th in Division I … The Wildcats have a 4.83 team ERA with 348 strikeouts compared to 133 walks … K-State leads the league and ranks 31st in DI with a 2.62 strikeout-to-walk ratio while also leading the Big 12 in fewest walks per nine innings at 3.63 and total walks allowed … Sixteen pitchers have made appearances on the mound with five making over 10 outings this year while German Fajardo has a team-high 10 starts … Left-handed Owen Boerema ranks second in the league with 64 total strikeouts while the Minnesota product is just one-of-six pitchers to strikeout 12+ in a single game …
SCOUTING WICHITA STATE
Wichita State comes to Manhattan with an overall 20-15 record with the Shockers posting a 9-8 record of the road … WSU is led by interim head coach Loren Hibbs following his 27 seasons spent at the helm of the Charlotte baseball program … The Shockers are slashing .297/.384/.480 averaging 7.3 runs a game on 10.2 hits … WSU has totaled 128 extra-base hits including 43 homers … Six starters are hitting over .300 led by Brock Rodden … The junior infielder is hitting .353 on the year with 41 RBI and 37 runs scored … Ten shockers have sent one out of the park this season led by Rodden with 10 to go along with a team-high .683 slugging-percentage … On the mound, Kansas has a 4.72 team ERA with opponents hitting .255 with a 1.57 strikeout-to-walk ratio … Left-hander Payton Tolle has earned six victories on the mound this year over nine starts … Caden Favors leads in appearances with 17 followed by Nate Snead at 15 as the duo has combined for 61 innings and 60 strikeouts …
INSIDE THE SERIES
Wichita State leads the all-time series 56-44 since its start in 1906 … The Wildcats are 26-18 when playing in Manhattan … The Cats are 3-2 in the last five meetings and 6-4 over the last 10 … Under head coach Pete Hughes, K-State is 3-3 … The Wildcats won the season home-and-home series last year, 2-0, outscoring the Shockers 15-2 … In the 100th all-time meeting, German Fajardo punched out a career-high 10 batters and yielded only one hit over six innings to lead the Cats to a 3-1 victory …
W, 7-2 – May 1, 2019 (Manhattan)
L, 1-2 – Feb. 26, 2020 (Wichita)
L, 1-5 – March 23, 2021 (Wichita)
W, 12-1 – April 18, 2022 (Wichita)
W, 3-1 – May 3, 2022 (Manhattan)
A SEASON OF FIRSTS
The Wildcats' Dillons Sunflower Showdown series sweep was the first sweep over KU on the road since 2013 … The 2023 team is the fastest team to nine conference wins in program history … Fastest team to 24 overall wins since 2013 … First team to 11 road wins in a season and is just two wins shy of tying a program record 13 done by the 2013 and 1991 teams … K-State completed its first sweep over Oklahoma at home since 1990 … The sweep over the Sooners marked the first Big 12 series win since 2013 … K-State is the first member of the Big 12 to reach nine conference victories this season … First time in 123-years of K-State baseball history the Wildcats led off the season with a four-game road series sweep …
BRING OUT THE BROOMS
K-State has swept four three-plus game series this season including two Big 12 foes which marks the first since 2013 … The Cats are 13-0 in the four series and have outscored opponents 144-72 (+72) … The Wildcats plated 21 runs in the series finale against the KU Jayhawks in the highest-scoring game in series history to complete the Showdown sweep … K-State is the only program in the Big 12 to have two conference sweeps this season …
AROUND THE LEAGUE
Texas leads the Big 12 standings with an 8-4 league record and 26-12 overall with the Wildcats following closely behind in second at 9-6 and 24-14 overall … The sweep over KU marks the Cats fourth consecutive victory which is the current highest streak in the league … TCU (22-14, 7-5) ranks third in the standings followed by West Virginia (25-11, 5-4) and Oklahoma State (24-13, 8-7) closing the top five … Texas Tech (25-12, 6-6) ranks sixth followed by Kansas (17-18, 5-7), Baylor (13-23, 5-10) and Oklahoma (19-18, 4-8) …
WALK THE WALK
The Cats have walked a nation-leading 259 times this season, averaging 6.8 per contest … Brady Day and Cash Rugely lead the Wildcats with 35 total walks each which ranks 14th in Division I and third in the Big 12 … K-State has registered double figure walks in eight games this season … The Cats had 16 walks against Youngstown State (March 10) which was nine short of matching the Division I all-time record … K-State is on pace to break the single-season Top 10 leaderboard with just 17 left to match the 10th top performance of 276 set in 1982 … The Wildcats all-time single-season walks record was set in 1995 with 382 …
GOTTA BE QUICKER THAN THAT
K-State has caused troubles on the base path for opponents, stealing a league-high 88 bases which ranks 10th in all Division I while sitting 17th with 2.32 per game … Brendan Jones has been the speedster for the Cats lineup with 21 stolen bases which is second in the Big 12 and 21st among all Division I players … The Cats nearly matched the program record with 11 stolen bases against Youngstown State (March 10) and were just one base shy of matching the record … The Cats 88 stolen bases surpasses the 2022 season total by 46 … The K-State single-season record is 149 set in 2009 thru 62 games …
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Raphael Pelletier continues to be a threat behind the plate as the redshirt-sophomore catcher from Mascouche, Quebec, Canada has thrown out a league-high 11 runners this season after tossing out a runner in the series against nationally-ranked Texas … As a team, K-State is second in the league in caught stealing with 19 runners thrown out while having the lowest stolen base attempt percentage at .406 …
THE LONG BALL
K-State has launched 55 balls out of the park this season which ranks second in the Big 12 and 38th across Division I … Eleven players have recorded multiple homers this season led by Roberto Pena and Nick Goodwin each with nine this season … Goodwin leads the current career leaderboard with 30 which ranks fifth on the all-time leaderboard … Brendan Jones hit the Cats only game leadoff home run in the series opener against the West Virginia … … Four players have hit multiple homers in a single game with Kaelen Culpepper, Cole Johnson, Orlando Salinas, Jr., Pena … The Cats have produced 80+ home runs the past two seasons … K-State hit back-to-back home runs for the second time this season since with back-to-back solo shots by Dom Hughes and Goodwin … Four Wildcats have hit three grand slams this season with the last coming from Kyan Lodice against Kansas (April 16) … Johnson and Pena each launched a grand slam against SFA (Feb. 20) to mark the first time since 2010 where two Wildcats posted grand slams in the same game … 47 homers have been against right-handed pitchers, 24 are solo shots while 22 have come with one-out … The Wildcats were the only team to produce double digit bombs in the opening weekend (10) … The Wildcats sent five deep and out in the series finale against No. 24 West Virginia marking the fourth time in the Hughes era, and second this season … The five home runs were just short two of matching a program record seven …
LAST TIME OUT
In the highest scoring game in series history, K-State won 21-18 over Kansas to complete the Dillons Sunflower Showdown sweep at Hoglund Ballpark on Sunday … K-State scored 21 runs on 19 hits with two errors … The Wildcats scored 13 runs in the second inning … Second time this season Cats posted a 10+ run inning … Kyan Lodice launched his first collegiate grand slam; Cats fifth of the season … First 10+ run against KU since 2017 and first 20+ run game since 1988 … Heyne picked up his third win with four strikeouts … Highest scoring game in series history; surpassed KU's 22-16 win on May 15, 1931 … Nine different players recorded a hit; seven had multiple … Day produced his third straight three-hit game … Rugely, Day and Johnson each had three hits … Kaelen Culpepper and Lodice each led with six-RBI … The bullpen combined for 11 earned runs and 11 strikeouts … Rugely reached base for the 20th straight game followed by Day (17) and Pelletier (14) … KU scored 18 runs on 17 hits with four errors … Each team stranded 12 on base … Cats now lead the all-time series 186-177-1 and are 74-92 in Lawrence …
A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
K-State has a season +95 run differential through 38 games averaging 8.1 runs on 9.1 hits ... The Wildcats have outscored opponents 45-29 in the fourth inning alone and 108-49 (+59) from the seventh and on … Cats are 17-3 when leading after the sixth and 3-0 when tied after six ... K-State is 10-8 when committing no errors in a game … Conversely, K-State has won 14 games when one or more errors are committed, 14-6 overall ... The Wildcats are 18-6 when scoring first and 8-5 when scoring in the first inning … K-State has outhit opponents on 19 occasions this season and is 5-14 when being outhit … The Cats are 16-2 when limiting opponents to five or less runs and are 6-5 in one-run games… K-State is 19-9 when playing afternoon games and 5-5 when playing under the lights … The Cats have won 20 games against right-handed starters while going 4-6 against lefties …
FROM THE 'PEN
Under the guidance pitching coach Rudy Darrow, the Cats pitching staff has produced a 4.83 ERA which ranks fourth in the Big 12 with outings from 16 different players this season … The Wildcats have struck out 348 batters this season compared to 133 walks, averaging 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings which ranks third in the Big 12 … K-State's pitching staff leads the lead with a 2.62 strikeout-to-walk ratio which is 31st in Division I … The Cats lead the Big 12 with fewest walks allowed per nine innings at 3.63 and fewest allowed overall with 133 … Four players have earned at least three victories on the mound led by newcomer Owen Boerema with four followed by Tyson Neighbors and Mason Buss each with three … Boerema earned his fourth victory in the series opener against Oklahoma limiting the Sooners to one run with seven strikeouts during his six innings … The Litchfield, Minn., product is one of six players to strikeout 12+ batters in a single-game after fanning 12 against No. 21 Texas (April 7), ranks second in the league with 64 total strikeouts… Right-hander German Fajardo has made a team-high 10 starts on the mound this season, ranks eighth in the nation … Four different players have earned a save this year led by sophomore Tyson Neighbors with a league-high six which is the 25th-best in D1…
UP NEXT
The Cats will head to the Golden State for a four-game road trip against UC-Irvine and UC-Riverside. K-State will take on the UCI Anteaters in a three-game series starting on April 21 at the Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark in Irvine, Calif. The series against UCI will be streamed on ESPN+ and the ESPN app with radio coverage on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM). Live streaming audio is available for all games at KStateSports.com/watch and on the K-State Sports app.