Sunday Sweep!! Cats Hold Off No. 22 Bears

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State plated single runs in three of the first four innings and the Wildcat bullpen held Baylor hitless over the final 3.2 innings as the Cats completed a three-game sweep of the No. 22 Bears, 3-2, Sunday afternoon at Tointon Stadium. With the win, K-State wrapped up the 2006 season with a 31-20-2 overall record and an 8-17-2 mark in league play, while Baylor fell to 34-22 and 13-14.

The Wildcats, with the win, completed a three-game sweep of a Big 12 opponent for the first time since sweeping Kansas in 2002 and also swept a Baylor team for the first time in school history.

Kansas State ended the season on a five-game winning streak, out-scoring their opponents 55-13 over that stretch, and also moved their season record against ranked opponents to 7-7. K-State finished the season in ninth place in the Big 12 Conference, one win away from eighth and a Big 12 Tournament berth, and recorded 30 wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1990 and 1991.

Sunday, the Wildcats jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second as Joe Roundy led off with a single to left and moved to second on a Barrett Rice sacrifice bunt. Then with two men out, Drew Biery tripled past a diving Seth Fortenberry in left to score Roundy and give K-State a 1-0 advantage. In the third, Tyler Link drew a walk and moved to third on throwing error on a failed pick-off attempt and then scored the game’s second run on a sacrifice fly from Brandon Farr.

Baylor answered in the fourth as Tim Jackson singled and scored on a Mike Pankratz double to the gap in left center to make the score 2-1 in favor of the Cats. But the Cats answered right back as Rice singled and came around to score on a Byron Wiley double to left to up the lead back to two at 3-1.

The Bears pulled back to within one at 3-2 after a Chase Gerded triple but reliever Chase Mitchell came in with one out and got a pop up and a groundout to end the inning with runners on first and third. The bullpen was the difference Sunday as Mitchell went on and tossed 1.2 hitless innings, while Daniel Edwards threw a perfect eighth and ninth to earn his third save of the season.

Starter Chase Bayuk (7-2) earned the win after scattering 10 hits over 5.1 innings while allowing just two runs. The sophomore struck out two and walked two on the day as K-State starting pitchers struck out 17 and walked just two on the weekend.

Baylor’s Jeff Mandell (2-3) suffered the loss after giving up three runs on five hits over 5.0 innings.

Senior Barrett Rice, one of eight Wildcat seniors to close out their careers Sunday, led the offense with two hits, while fellow seniors Brandon Farr and Joe Roundy each had hits on the day as well.

– k-statesports.com –