Kansas State University Athletics
Wednesday, March 20
Manhattan, Kan.
3 p.m.
Kansas State University
11-10
6
vs
5
Canisius
5-15
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Canisius
0
0
0
0
0
2
1
0
2
5
10
0
K-State
2
1
1
0
0
0
2
0
X
6
8
2
Cats Close Homestand with 6-5 Win
Mar 20, 2019 | Baseball
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Terrence Spurlin homered, Cameron Thompson tallied a pair of RBI and Andrew Stratman recorded his first career save as K-State defeated Canisius 6-5 on Wednesday to split a two-game series at Tointon Family Stadium.
K-State (11-10) jumped out to a four-run lead after three innings and held a 6-3 going into the ninth inning. Canisius (5-15) scored two in the top of the ninth before Stratman induced a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
"That's why (baseball) is the best game in the world," head coach Pete Hughes said after the game. "You can play like that (yesterday), and then in less than 24 hours have a chance to feel good again and correct some things. We needed to feel good coming into Oklahoma State this weekend. I thought that was a really good team win. We had some good balance out of our bullpen, a lot of guys involved making some really big pitches.
"Proud of Terry Spurlin. He didn't have a great night last night and got us on the board early, really good team win."
Spurlin launched his third homer of the season, a solo shot with two strikes to start the second.
Thompson, who had a team-high two hits, produced an RBI single in the bottom of the first with another coming as part of a two-run seventh.
Wildcat starter Joey Martin held the Golden Griffins scoreless on three hits through 3 2/3 innings with three strikeouts. Reliever Jaxon Passino gave up one earned run over 2 1/3 and escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the fourth with one of his two strikeouts.
"(Passino) did a really good job of settling everything down," added Hughes. "I thought Joey did a really good job, too. He's learning and getting better and competing like crazy. That's 95 percent of it."
The Cats took their 4-0 lead into the sixth when Canisius cut it in half with a pair of runs in the top half of the inning. Catcher Trevor Henneman's RBI single put the score at 4-2. An unearned Griffin run put K-State's lead at just a single run as the game reached the seventh-inning stretch.
K-State responded in the bottom half of the inning, as Thomas Hughes led off with a double and later scored via a sacrifice fly from Will Brennan. Rainer Ausmus, who earlier walked, scored on Thompson's RBI single to push the lead to 6-3.
A two-run single by Jacob Victor again cut the Cats' lead to a run before Stratman forced William Krull into a game-ending double play.
Brennan and Hughes, along with Chris Ceballos, each doubled in the game. Zach Kokoska added an RBI single in the third.
Canisius starting pitcher Brett Kochanski suffered the loss after allowing four earned runs on five hits in three innings. Kochanski walked two and failed to record a strikeout.
Senior Mitch Zubradt threw a perfect eighth inning, picking up two strikeouts. In nine outings (11 innings pitched), Zubradt has yet to allow a run on just two hits to go with 17 strikeouts.
K-State begins Big 12 play on Friday as the Wildcats travel to face Oklahoma State for a three-game series.
"We are excited about it," Hughes said of entering conference play. "Stillwater is tough place to play. To get to where we want to go you have to play well on the road and you have to be tough enough to play well on the road in the Big 12, so it'll be a good challenge for us."
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
K-State (11-10) jumped out to a four-run lead after three innings and held a 6-3 going into the ninth inning. Canisius (5-15) scored two in the top of the ninth before Stratman induced a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
"That's why (baseball) is the best game in the world," head coach Pete Hughes said after the game. "You can play like that (yesterday), and then in less than 24 hours have a chance to feel good again and correct some things. We needed to feel good coming into Oklahoma State this weekend. I thought that was a really good team win. We had some good balance out of our bullpen, a lot of guys involved making some really big pitches.
"Proud of Terry Spurlin. He didn't have a great night last night and got us on the board early, really good team win."
Spurlin launched his third homer of the season, a solo shot with two strikes to start the second.
Thompson, who had a team-high two hits, produced an RBI single in the bottom of the first with another coming as part of a two-run seventh.
Wildcat starter Joey Martin held the Golden Griffins scoreless on three hits through 3 2/3 innings with three strikeouts. Reliever Jaxon Passino gave up one earned run over 2 1/3 and escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the fourth with one of his two strikeouts.
"(Passino) did a really good job of settling everything down," added Hughes. "I thought Joey did a really good job, too. He's learning and getting better and competing like crazy. That's 95 percent of it."
The Cats took their 4-0 lead into the sixth when Canisius cut it in half with a pair of runs in the top half of the inning. Catcher Trevor Henneman's RBI single put the score at 4-2. An unearned Griffin run put K-State's lead at just a single run as the game reached the seventh-inning stretch.
K-State responded in the bottom half of the inning, as Thomas Hughes led off with a double and later scored via a sacrifice fly from Will Brennan. Rainer Ausmus, who earlier walked, scored on Thompson's RBI single to push the lead to 6-3.
A two-run single by Jacob Victor again cut the Cats' lead to a run before Stratman forced William Krull into a game-ending double play.
Brennan and Hughes, along with Chris Ceballos, each doubled in the game. Zach Kokoska added an RBI single in the third.
Canisius starting pitcher Brett Kochanski suffered the loss after allowing four earned runs on five hits in three innings. Kochanski walked two and failed to record a strikeout.
Senior Mitch Zubradt threw a perfect eighth inning, picking up two strikeouts. In nine outings (11 innings pitched), Zubradt has yet to allow a run on just two hits to go with 17 strikeouts.
K-State begins Big 12 play on Friday as the Wildcats travel to face Oklahoma State for a three-game series.
"We are excited about it," Hughes said of entering conference play. "Stillwater is tough place to play. To get to where we want to go you have to play well on the road and you have to be tough enough to play well on the road in the Big 12, so it'll be a good challenge for us."
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- K-State scored six runs on eight hits and committed two errors and left five runners on base.
- Canisius scored five runs on 10 hits without an error and stranded eight baserunners.
- Thompson went 2-for-4 with two RBI, his sixth multi-hit effort over his last seven games.
- Spurlin tallied his third home run of the season.
- Stratman earned his first career save.
- Brennan, Ceballos and Hughes each doubled.
- The first even hitters in the K-State lineup all had a base hit.
- K-State pitchers combined to record nine strikeouts against two walks.
- The Cats hit .375 (3-for-8) with runners in scoring position while Canisius went 3-for-13 (231).
- Each team went 2-for-10 with two outs.
- The all-time series between K-State and Canisius is now tied 1-1.
- K-State finished its season-long 10-game homestand with a 6-4 record.
- The Wildcats are now 2-2 in one-run games and have a +1 run differential on the season (117-116).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Martin, Joey (2-0)
L: Kochanski,Brett (0-1)
S: Stratman, Andrew (1)
Batting:
RBI: Victor,Jacob 2 ; Henneman,Trevor 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Krull,William 1 ; Bennett,Stephen 1 ; Leader,Andy 1 ; Preziuso,Joseph 2
SB: Burlingame,Jake 1 ; Bennett,Stephen 1
HBP: Burlingame,Jake 1 ; Krull,William 1
Batting:
2B: Hughes, Thomas 1 ; Brennan, Will 1 ; Ceballos, Chris 1
HR: Spurlin, Terrence 1
RBI: Brennan, Will 1 ; Thompson, Cameron 2 ; Ceballos, Chris 1 ; Kokoska, Zach 1 ; Spurlin, Terrence 1
SH: Spurlin, Terrence 1
SF: Brennan, Will 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hughes, Thomas 1 ; Ausmus, Rainer 2 ; Brennan, Will 1 ; Ceballos, Chris 1 ; Spurlin, Terrence 1
SB: Thompson, Cameron 1 ; Kokoska, Zach 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
0
H
2
RBI
2
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
INF
/ BaseballOF/LHP
/ Baseball
C
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
OF/LHP
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
INF/RHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballIF/OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballK-State BSB | Postgame Press Conference vs Texas
Sunday, June 01
K-State Baseball | Game Highlights vs Houston Christian (Austin Regional)
Sunday, June 01
K-State BSB | Game Highlights vs Houston Christian (Austin Regional)
Saturday, May 31
K-State BSB | Postgame Press Conference vs Houston Christian
Saturday, May 31