Courtesy of Kansas State Athletics
MANHATTAN, Kan. – K-State will take on in-state rival Kansas this weekend as the Dillons Sunflower Showdown starts Friday at 6 p.m. at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.
The Wildcats are coming off a 10-0 run-rule victory over Creighton to enter the weekend series 21-14 overall with a 6-6 record in Big 12 action. Kansas is on a two-game winning streak after taking the series against Texas Southern for an overall 17-15 record and sits fourth in the league at 5-4.
Tyson Neighbors was named the Big 12 Co-Pitcher of the Week after his dominating performance against No. 21 Texas where the sophomore struck out eight of the final 11 batters.
Owen Boerema will get the start in the showdown opener followed by German Fajardo and Collin Rothermel. The Jayhawks will send Collin Baumgarten to the mound on Friday with Sam Ireland getting Saturday's start.
The Wildcats are 183-177-1 all-time against the Jayhawks after taking the final two games at Tointon Family Stadium last season. The Cats are 71-92 when playing in Lawrence.
The series will be streamed on the Longhorn Network 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.
GAME #36
K-STATE (21-14, 6-6 Big 12) at KANSAS (17-15, 5-4 Big 12)
Friday, April 14 | 6 p.m. | Hoglund Ballpark
Projected Starters: LHP Owen Boerema v. RHP Collin Baumgarten
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Radio: 1350AM/93.3/93.7FM
Listen Online: kstatesports.com/watch
Live Stats| Tickets
GAME #37
K-STATE (21-14, 6-6 Big 12) at KANSAS (17-15, 5-4 Big 12)
Saturday, April 15 | 2 p.m. | Hoglund Ballpark
Projected Starters: RHP German Fajardo v. RHP Sam Ireland
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Radio: 1350AM/93.3/93.7FM
Listen Online: kstatesports.com/watch
Live Stats| Tickets
GAME #38
K-STATE (21-14, 6-6 Big 12) at KANSAS (17-15, 5-4 Big 12)
Sunday, April 16 | 1 p.m. | Hoglund Ballpark
Projected Starters: RHP Collin Rothermel 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 heads into the Big 12 weekend 21-14 and 6-6 in the league … The cats are coming off 10-0 run-rule victory against Creighton for their second shutout win of the season … Pete Hughes is in his fifth season at the helm and has compiled an 119-106 (.529) record during his time with Wildcats … Hughes is 771-598-3 (.563) in his 26 years as a head coach … K-State is slashing .268/.403/.456 as a team including 58 doubles, seven triples and 48 home runs with two starters hitting over .300 … K-State leads the nation in walks with 239 while ranking fifth in sacrifice flies (24) … Senior Cash Rugely is hitting .340 to lead the Cats offense to go alongside a .496 on-base percentage and .566 slug … Kaelen Culpepper is second on the team in batting average at .302 followed by Brady Day at .293 … Roberto Pena and Cole Johnson have sent eight homers out of the ball park this season and rank second and third in RBI combing for 82 this season … Goodwin and Brendan Jones have started in all 35 games for K-State at shortstop and center field… Jones ranks second in the league with 19 stolen bases which ranks 22nd 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 85 stolen bases which ranks seventh in Division I … K-State has rolled 22 double plays this season which ranks fifth in the Big 12 … The Wildcats have a 4.81 team ERA with 313 strikeouts compared to 118 walks … K-State ranks second in the league and ranks 33rd in DI with a 2.65 strikeout-to-walk ratio while leading the Big 12 in fewest walks per nine innings at 3.50 … Sixteen pitchers have made appearances on the mound with five making over 10 outings this year while German Fajardo has a team-high nine starts … Left-handed Owen Boerema ranks second in the league with 57 total strikeouts while the Minnesota product is just one-of-six pitchers to strikeout 12+ in a single game …
SCOUTING KANSAS
The Jayhawks enter the weekend with an overall 17-15 record and 5-4 record in league action … The Jayhawks had their season-high seven-game winning-streak snapped last weekend against No. 19 West Virginia while KU took the series 2-1 … KU is led by first-year head coach Dan Fitzgerald following his one year stop as an assistant coach at LSU … The Jayhawks are slashing .272/.366/.457 averaging 6.8 runs a game on 10 hits … KU has totaled 111 extra-base hits including 40 homers … Two starters are hitting over .300 led by Kodey Shojinaga… The freshman from Honolulu, Hawaii is hitting .375 on the year with 22 RBI and 17 runs scored … Eight Jayhawks have sent one out of the park this season led by Janson Reeder with eight while Shojinaga has a team-high .602 slugging-percentage … On the mound, Kansas has a 5.73 team ERA with opponents hitting .273 with a 1.87 strikeout-to-walk ratio … Collin Baumgartner (3-0) will get his ninth start of the season in Friday's opener heading into the series with a 3.77 ERA … The right-hander has a struck out a team-high 41 batters this year … Right-hander Sam Ireland will get the mid-game start with a 5.06 ERA and 4-3 record on the hump for the Jayhawks … Thaniel Trumper has made a team-high 16 appearances on the mound while Stone Hewlett leads with three saves …
INSIDE THE SERIES
K-State leads the all-time series 183-177-1 while Kansas leads 92-71 in Lawrence since the series start in 1897 … Friday marks the 362nd meeting between the two schools … K-State took the series 2-1 last season at Tointon Family Stadium … The Cats are 3-7 in the last 10 meetings against the Jayhawks and under head coach Pete Hughes … K-State leads 3-2 in past five matchups …
L, 10-0 (7) – May 14, 2021 (Lawrence)
W, 6-2 – May 15, 2021 (Lawrence)
L, 5-3 – May 6, 2022 (Manhattan)
W, 5-2 – May 7, 2022 (Manhattan)
W, 6-3 – May 8, 2022 (Manhattan)
AROUND THE LEAGUE
Texas moved to first in the Big 12 standings after taking the series over Kansas State … The No. 19 Longhorns have an overall 24-11 record and 6-3 in league action … No. 25 TCU (21-12) and No. 18 Oklahoma State (23-11) are tied in second each with a 7-5 conference record … Kansas comes in at fourth at 17-15 overall and 5-4 in Big 12 play followed by West Virginia (23-10, 3-3) rounding out the top five … K-State (21-14, 6-6) ranks sixth followed by No. 21 Texas Tech (23-11, 4-5), Baylor (12-21, 4-8) and Oklahoma (18-16, 3-6) …
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
K-State is 8-10 when playing on the road and 8-7 when playing in true away games as the visiting team including 2-4 in Big 12 road games ... On the road, the Wildcat offense hits .258 while slugging .428 with 22 home runs ... K-State has averaged 6.7 runs a game on 8.6 hits when on the road ... Kaelen Culpepper leads the offense on the road hitting .349 with 15 hits including four extra-base hits and 15 RBI over 11 games … Pelletier and Jones follow hitting .294 and .293 … The duo has combined for 29 of the 122 road runs with 14 RBI while Cole Johnson leads with 25 RBI and six homers … The Wildcat bullpen has boasted a 5.84 ERA on the road, striking out 162 compared to 67 walks ... Seven different Cats have earned a victory on the road with Tyson Neighbors leading with three saves … Neighbors has made an appearance in nine road games this season followed by Mason Buss, Ty Ruhl, and Shay Hartis each with eight …
WALK THE WALK
The Cats have walked a nation-leading 239 times this season, averaging 6.8 per contest … Brady Day leads the Wildcats with 33 total walks which ranks 10th 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 64 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 85 bases which ranks seventh in all Division I while sitting 12th with 2.43 per game … 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 … Brendan Jones has been the speedster for the Cats lineup with 19 stolen bases which is second in the Big 12 and 14th among all Division I players … The Cats 74 stolen bases surpasses the 2022 season total by 32 … 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 … Pelletier matched his career-high (8) in the series opener against Baylor (March 17) …
THE LONG BALL
K-State has launched 48 balls out of the park this season which ranks third in the Big 12 and 43rd across Division I … 10 players have recorded multiple homers this season led by Roberto Pena and Cole Johnson lead the pack with eight homers this season … Nick Goodwin leads the current career leaderboard with 28 … Brendan Jones hit a leadoff home run in the series opener against the Mountaineers … Cole Johnson hit his second career and season grand slam in the Wildcats 12-9 comeback victory over Air Force (March 28) … Three players have hit multiple homers in a single game with Johnson, Orlando Salinas, Jr., and 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 … Three Wildcats have hit three grand slams this season with the last coming at Air Force (March 28) by Johnson … Johnson and Roberto 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 … Nine players are posting a multi-home run season … 41 homers were against right-handed pitchers, 24 were solo shots while 20 came 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
K-state moved to 21-14 run-ruling Creighton, 10-0, on Monday night … Collin Rothermel and Ty Ruhl combined to shut out Creighton in seven innings at Tointon Family Stadium … Kaelen Culpepper laced an RBI double to right center to plate the game-winning run while Cole Johnson's three-run homer in the seventh put the run-rule in effect … Rothermel picked up his first victory of the season after tossing six complete innings and held the Bluejays to just two hits with six strikeouts … Roberto Pena, Culpepper, and Johnson each went 2-for-3 at the plate with Pena and Johnson each registering three-RBI … K-State scored 10 runs on 10 hits with five runners left on base … Seven Cats registered a hit in the nightcap; three had multiple … The Wildcats had three extra base hits .. Pena and Johnson each had three-RBI … Johnson hit his eighth homer of the season; has 16 career home runs … The Cats went 5-12 (.417) with runners in scoring position with three two-out RBI … Creighton left seven runners on base … Monday marked the Cats ninth 10+ run game … K-State registered its second shutout of the season … Ruhl tossed a shutout inning with one strikeout …
A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
K-State has a season +86 run differential through 35 games averaging 7.9 runs on 8.8 hits ... The Wildcats have outscored opponents 41-26 in the fourth inning alone and 103-44 (+59) from the seventh and on … Cats are 15-3 when leading after the sixth and 2-0 when tied after six ... K-State is 9-8 when committing no errors in a game … Conversely, K-State has won 12 games when one or more errors are committed, 12-6 overall ... The Wildcats are 16-6 when scoring first and 7-5 when scoring in the first inning … K-State has outhit opponents on 16 occasions this season and is 5-14 when being outhit … The Cats are 14-2 when limiting opponents to five or less runs and are 5-5 in one-run games… K-State is 16-9 when playing afternoon games and 5-5 when playing under the lights … The Cats have won 17 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 4.81 ERA which ranks fifth in the Big 12 with outings from 16 different players this season … The Wildcats have struck out 313 batters this season compared to 118 walks, averaging 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings which ranks fourth in the Big 12 … K-State's pitching staff ranks second in the league with a 2.65 strikeout-to-walk ratio which is 33rd in Division I … The Cats lead the Big 12 with fewest walks allowed per nine innings at 3.50 … Six players have earned at least two 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 57 total strikeouts… Right-hander German Fajardo has made a team-high nine 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 five which ranks third in the league…
UP NEXT
Following the Dillons Sunflower Showdown, the Cats return to Tointon Family Stadium to host in-state rival Wichita State on Tuesday, April 18, with game time slated for 6 p.m. The game will be streamed on the Big 12 Now 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.