Kansas State University Athletics
Saturday, February 16
Northridge, Calif.
3 p.m.
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Kansas State
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Hughes Collects Win No. 1 as K-State Head Coach
Feb 16, 2019 | Baseball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – K-State fended off CSUN Saturday afternoon to hand first-year head coach Pete Hughes his first victory as the Wildcat skipper after a three-run ninth inning fueled a 6-5 win at Matador Field.
The Wildcats broke a 3-3 tie with solo home runs by junior Will Brennan and sophomore Terrence Spurlin – each the first career homers in their respective careers. In the bottom half of the ninth, the Matadors threatened with two runs but senior Mitch Zubradt came in for a one-out save.
"It was a good day, a good team day," Hughes said after his 653rd career win as head coach. "It's always great to win. We were resilient, a good character win. We are learning how to win, and nothing like those tight games to learn how to win the right way. We need to stop making them tight games when you have three-run leads and four-run leads, but that's part of the process. We need to minimize our mistakes and learn to play with a lead.
"That was a tough loss to start the day and to come back a few minutes later and get a great outing from a freshman pitcher (Jordan Wicks)," added Hughes. "Then you get a lot of key contributors. Spurlin gets his first home run. Dylan Phillips hit his first home run – left, left – which was great. And then Will Brennan, you want your captain to get up in a big spot and get a hit for you, and he did that. Then we had our senior come in and close it out."
K-State (1-1) played four innings earlier in the day as it needed to complete its suspended game from Friday that saw the Cats and CSUN tied, 4-4, after five innings. The Wildcats batted around and put up four in the top of the sixth inning before the Matadors (1-1) countered with six unanswered runs over the next four innings to complete a 10-8 victory.
K-State starting pitcher Jordan Wicks struck out seven without allowing a walk over five innings as the freshman allowed just one run. Wicks scattered six hits and did not factor into the decision.
Phillips provided a team-high three hits for the Wildcats, including a solo home run in the fourth that gave the Cats a 2-0 lead.
K-State manufactured two runs without the benefit of a base hit. In the third, Caleb Littlejim walked, stole second, took third on a sacrifice bunt by Hughes and scored on a wild pitch.
After CSUN cut the Wildcats' lead in half after a solo homer by Angelo Bortolin in the bottom of the fourth, K-State countered with one in the top of the fifth as Brennan produced an RBI groundout that scored Cameron Thompson.
K-State took advantage of Matadors starting pitcher Wesley Moore, who handed out a career-high eight walks in 4 2/3 innings. Moore yielded just one hit but allowed three earned runs while striking out five.
Littlejim, who homered in the season opener, came on to pitch 2 2/3 innings of relief. The junior two-way player earned the win, allowing three earned on five hits. CSUN's Brandon Bohning roped an RBI triple to right center and scored on a throwing error to bring the Matadors within a run.
Zubradt struck out the only batter he faced to seal K-State's first win of the season.
Brennan had two RBI, going 1-for-4 with a run and a walk.
Game 3 of the series is scheduled for a 3 p.m. CT first pitch and can heard live on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) with live audio streaming at K-StateSports.com/watch.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
The Wildcats broke a 3-3 tie with solo home runs by junior Will Brennan and sophomore Terrence Spurlin – each the first career homers in their respective careers. In the bottom half of the ninth, the Matadors threatened with two runs but senior Mitch Zubradt came in for a one-out save.
"It was a good day, a good team day," Hughes said after his 653rd career win as head coach. "It's always great to win. We were resilient, a good character win. We are learning how to win, and nothing like those tight games to learn how to win the right way. We need to stop making them tight games when you have three-run leads and four-run leads, but that's part of the process. We need to minimize our mistakes and learn to play with a lead.
"That was a tough loss to start the day and to come back a few minutes later and get a great outing from a freshman pitcher (Jordan Wicks)," added Hughes. "Then you get a lot of key contributors. Spurlin gets his first home run. Dylan Phillips hit his first home run – left, left – which was great. And then Will Brennan, you want your captain to get up in a big spot and get a hit for you, and he did that. Then we had our senior come in and close it out."
K-State (1-1) played four innings earlier in the day as it needed to complete its suspended game from Friday that saw the Cats and CSUN tied, 4-4, after five innings. The Wildcats batted around and put up four in the top of the sixth inning before the Matadors (1-1) countered with six unanswered runs over the next four innings to complete a 10-8 victory.
K-State starting pitcher Jordan Wicks struck out seven without allowing a walk over five innings as the freshman allowed just one run. Wicks scattered six hits and did not factor into the decision.
Phillips provided a team-high three hits for the Wildcats, including a solo home run in the fourth that gave the Cats a 2-0 lead.
K-State manufactured two runs without the benefit of a base hit. In the third, Caleb Littlejim walked, stole second, took third on a sacrifice bunt by Hughes and scored on a wild pitch.
After CSUN cut the Wildcats' lead in half after a solo homer by Angelo Bortolin in the bottom of the fourth, K-State countered with one in the top of the fifth as Brennan produced an RBI groundout that scored Cameron Thompson.
K-State took advantage of Matadors starting pitcher Wesley Moore, who handed out a career-high eight walks in 4 2/3 innings. Moore yielded just one hit but allowed three earned runs while striking out five.
Littlejim, who homered in the season opener, came on to pitch 2 2/3 innings of relief. The junior two-way player earned the win, allowing three earned on five hits. CSUN's Brandon Bohning roped an RBI triple to right center and scored on a throwing error to bring the Matadors within a run.
Zubradt struck out the only batter he faced to seal K-State's first win of the season.
Brennan had two RBI, going 1-for-4 with a run and a walk.
Game 3 of the series is scheduled for a 3 p.m. CT first pitch and can heard live on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) with live audio streaming at K-StateSports.com/watch.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- K-State scored six runs on seven hits with one error and 11 left on base.
- CSUN scored five runs on 12 hits without an error and nine left on base.
- Phillips had a team-high three hits, going 3-for-5 with a home run.
- Brennan, Phillips and Spurlin each hit their first career homers in the game.
- Wicks struck out seven over five innings in his first career start
- K-State was 0-for-14 with runners on base and 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
- The Cats got their leadoff man on base in five of nine innings.
- The all-time series between K-State and CSUN is now tied 3-3.
- Hughes earned his first win as the head coach of the Wildcats, improving his career record to 653-493-3.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Littlejim, Caleb (1-0)
L: Cunningham, Jackson (0-1)
S: Zubradt, Mitch (1)
Batting:
3B: Maxson, Jordan 1
HR: Brennan, Will 1 ; Spurlin, Terrence 1 ; Phillips, Dylan 1
RBI: Brennan, Will 2 ; Kokoska, Zach 1 ; Spurlin, Terrence 1 ; Phillips, Dylan 1
SH: Hughes, Thomas 1
SF: Kokoska, Zach 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Thompson, Cameron 1 ; Brennan, Will 1 ; Burrows, Blake 1 ; Spurlin, Terrence 1 ; Phillips, Dylan 1 ; Littlejim, Caleb 1
SB: Brennan, Will 1 ; Littlejim, Caleb 1
PO: Phillips, Dylan 1
Batting:
2B: Bullard, Robert 1 ; Barret, Kyle 1
3B: Bohning, Brandon 1
HR: Bortolin, Angelo 1
RBI: Bohning, Brandon 2 ; Barret, Kyle 1 ; Bortolin, Angelo 1
SH: Skelly, Sean 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bullard, Robert 1 ; Bohning, Brandon 1 ; Bortolin, Angelo 1 ; Lucas, Andrew 1 ; Clarke, Denzel 1
SB: Bohning, Brandon 1 ; Barret, Kyle 1 ; Lucas, Andrew 1 ; Clarke, Denzel 1
HBP: Newman, Jayson 1
Game Leaders
lf/1b
AB
5
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
dh/lf
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
1b/3b
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
OF/LHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballOF/LHP
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
IF/OF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
RHP
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