Kansas State University Athletics
Tuesday, April 16
Lincoln, Neb.
6:30 p.m.
Kansas State University
at
Nebraska
Wildcats Trek to Nebraska Tuesday
Apr 15, 2019 | Baseball
MANHATTAN, Kan. – K-State makes its return mid-week trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers Tuesday at Haymarket Park, with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m.
K-State (16-21) is fresh off a series win at No. 14 Texas over the weekend and has won three of its last four games overall. In the series rubber game, freshman Jordan Wicks tossed a five-hit shutout of the Longhorns on his way to being tabbed Big 12 Newcomer of the Week.
Caleb Littlejim will get the ball for the Wildcats Tuesday. Littlejim earned a victory in his last start with his first career quality outing against the Omaha Mavericks on April 10.
Nebraska (20-10) has won seven of its last eight games overall, including a 7-0 win over the Cats at Tointon Family Stadium on April 2.
The game with the former conference rival will stream live on BTN Plus with radio coverage is available on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM). Free streaming audio can be found at K-StateSports.com/watch.
GAME #38
K-STATE (16-21, 3-6 BIG 12) at NEBRASKA (20-10, 10-2 BIG TEN)
Tuesday, April 16 // 6:30 p.m. // Haymarket Park (8,486) // Lincoln, Neb.
Projected Starters: RHP Caleb Littlejim (2-1, 5.40 ERA) vs. RHP Mitch Ragan (5-1, 5.35 ERA)
Watch: BTN Plus
Radio: News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) // Matt Walters and John Kurtz
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/watch
Watch | Listen Online | Live Stats
A LOOK AT K-STATE
K-State (16-21) makes a return trip to Nebraska to complete a mid-week home-and-home series with the Cornhuskers on Tuesday night at Haymarket Park ... The Wildcats are coming off their first conference series win of the season after taking two of three games at No. 14 Texas over the weekend ... After splitting the first two games, freshman Jordan Wicks tossed a five-hit shutout as the Cats took the rubber match 2-0 ... The win marked the program's first-ever shutout victory over Texas to go with just the second road series win over a ranked opponent ... For his efforts, Wicks was rewarded with his first Big 12 Newcomer of the Week accolade on Monday ... Griffin Hassall tossed five one-hit innings in the series opener while Will Brennan came on to record a six-out save ... Brennan retired all six hitters he faced, picking up four strikeouts for his first save of the year and second in his career ... Zach Kokoska and Dylan Phillips each had four hits in the series to lead the K-State offense while the Cats homered in all three games of the series ... Chris Ceballos hit a two-run shot in the opener before Caleb Littlejim hit a solo shot in Game 2 ... Cameron Thompson led off the series finale with a home run for the Wildcats' second leadoff homer of the year and Thompson's first of the season ... K-State has won three of its last four games overall following a 1-9 stretch ... The Wildcats have won three of their last four against top-25 teams this season.
A LOOK AT NEBRASKA
Nebraska (20-10, 10-2 Big Ten) is coming off a three-game road sweep of Penn State over the weekend ... Nebraska has won seven of its last eight games going back to a 7-0 win over K-State at Tointon Family Stadium on April 2 ... The Cornhuskers won the three games against the Nittany Lions by a combined four runs ... Aaron Palensky leads the Huskers with a slash line of .345/.441/.496 to go with 11 doubles and 19 driven in ... Joe Acker is also hitting over .300 at .310 ... As a staff, NU boasts a 3.79 earned run average while opponents hit .243 against them ... Husker pitchers have tallied 236 strikeouts against 87 walks.
A LOOK AT THE SERIES
Nebraska owns a 173-114 edge in the all-time series, dating back to 1898 ... The Cornhuskers have won five of the last six meetings, including a 7-0 win on April 2 at Tointon Family Stadium ... In the season's first meeting, Huskers starter Kyle Perry went seven innings and allowed three hits with three strikeouts ... K-State managed just four hits off Nebraska in the game, highlighted by a Dylan Phillips double ... Jaxon Hallmark delivered an inside-the-park grand slam in the top of the first inning while Palensky had two hits ... K-State is 42-90 all-time in Lincoln, last winning in 2018 (4-3) ... The Cats are 2-8 in the last 10 matchups overall and the sides have split the last 10 meetings in Lincoln ... K-State and Nebraska have met every year since 1978.
MAKING A LITTLE HISTORY
K-State's 2-0 victory over No. 14 Texas marked the first program's first-ever shutout of the Longhorns while earning the team's first conference series win of the year ... The series victory was just the second in school history on the road against a ranked opponent ... It was the Wildcats' first road win in Austin since 2013 ... K-State has won three of its last four games against top-25 teams after going 0-8 against ranked teams in 2018.
POWER SURGE
K-State hit one home run in all three games of the Texas series and have hit a total of six homers in the last four overall ... Prior to its three-homer game against Omaha on April 10, the K-State offense had just two home runs over its last 11 games - including a stretch of five consecutive outings without a bomb ... Caleb Littlejim hit his team-leading sixth home run on Saturday ... The junior did not have an at-bat his previous two seasons ... Newcomers Chris Ceballos and Zach Kokoska each have five homers on the season, with two of Ceballos' long balls coming in Big 12 play ... The Wildcats are 5-1 when hitting multiple home runs.
KOKO GOIN' LOCO
K-State sophomore Zach Kokoska has catapulted himself to the top of K-State's leaderboard in all three slash categories with a .333 average, .404 on-base percentage and a .525 slugging percentage ... Kokoska is currently riding a season-long six-game hitting streak, hitting .381 with two homers and six RBI in that stretch ... The Latrobe, Pennsylvania, product hit in the cleanup spot for the first time in the Texas series ... He is second on the team with 23 runs batted in and 11 multi-hit games ... Kokoska boasts a team-best .353 average in Big 12 games ... Kokoska, in his first season at K-State after transferring from Virginia Tech, has hit safely in 18 of his last 24 games, raising his average from .262 to .333.
WINNING TIME
In K-State's 16 wins this season, the Wildcats are hitting .335 (53-for-158) with runners in scoring position and .317 (58-for-183) with two outs ... Conversely, the Cats have a .191 average (35-for-183) with runners in scoring position while hitting .173 (38-for-220) with two outs over 21 losses ... K-State has produced 36 two-out RBI in victories with just 18 in 21 losses ... Overall, K-State hits .303 in victories against just .223 in defeats ... In 21 defeats, K-State pitchers have combined for 106 walks (5.1 per game) while in victories the staff averages 3.5 walks per game (56 walks in 16 wins) ... K-State posts a 2.5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in wins while owning a 1.7 mark in losses.
NO K FOR YOU
Junior Will Brennan owns the title of toughest player to strike out in the nation, going 23.0 at-bats per strikeout this season (138 AB, 6 K) ... Brennan has not struck out in his last 47 at-bats ... The Stilwell native has finished each of the last two seasons as the toughest hitter in the conference to punch out ... In 2017, Brennan had 12 strikeouts in 183 at-bats and only went down on strikes 11 times in 220 at-bats last season ... Brennan owns a career at-bat-to-strikeout ratio of 18.7, with just 29 strikeouts in 541 at-bats.
K-State (16-21) is fresh off a series win at No. 14 Texas over the weekend and has won three of its last four games overall. In the series rubber game, freshman Jordan Wicks tossed a five-hit shutout of the Longhorns on his way to being tabbed Big 12 Newcomer of the Week.
Caleb Littlejim will get the ball for the Wildcats Tuesday. Littlejim earned a victory in his last start with his first career quality outing against the Omaha Mavericks on April 10.
Nebraska (20-10) has won seven of its last eight games overall, including a 7-0 win over the Cats at Tointon Family Stadium on April 2.
The game with the former conference rival will stream live on BTN Plus with radio coverage is available on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM). Free streaming audio can be found at K-StateSports.com/watch.
GAME #38
K-STATE (16-21, 3-6 BIG 12) at NEBRASKA (20-10, 10-2 BIG TEN)
Tuesday, April 16 // 6:30 p.m. // Haymarket Park (8,486) // Lincoln, Neb.
Projected Starters: RHP Caleb Littlejim (2-1, 5.40 ERA) vs. RHP Mitch Ragan (5-1, 5.35 ERA)
Watch: BTN Plus
Radio: News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) // Matt Walters and John Kurtz
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/watch
Watch | Listen Online | Live Stats
A LOOK AT K-STATE
K-State (16-21) makes a return trip to Nebraska to complete a mid-week home-and-home series with the Cornhuskers on Tuesday night at Haymarket Park ... The Wildcats are coming off their first conference series win of the season after taking two of three games at No. 14 Texas over the weekend ... After splitting the first two games, freshman Jordan Wicks tossed a five-hit shutout as the Cats took the rubber match 2-0 ... The win marked the program's first-ever shutout victory over Texas to go with just the second road series win over a ranked opponent ... For his efforts, Wicks was rewarded with his first Big 12 Newcomer of the Week accolade on Monday ... Griffin Hassall tossed five one-hit innings in the series opener while Will Brennan came on to record a six-out save ... Brennan retired all six hitters he faced, picking up four strikeouts for his first save of the year and second in his career ... Zach Kokoska and Dylan Phillips each had four hits in the series to lead the K-State offense while the Cats homered in all three games of the series ... Chris Ceballos hit a two-run shot in the opener before Caleb Littlejim hit a solo shot in Game 2 ... Cameron Thompson led off the series finale with a home run for the Wildcats' second leadoff homer of the year and Thompson's first of the season ... K-State has won three of its last four games overall following a 1-9 stretch ... The Wildcats have won three of their last four against top-25 teams this season.
A LOOK AT NEBRASKA
Nebraska (20-10, 10-2 Big Ten) is coming off a three-game road sweep of Penn State over the weekend ... Nebraska has won seven of its last eight games going back to a 7-0 win over K-State at Tointon Family Stadium on April 2 ... The Cornhuskers won the three games against the Nittany Lions by a combined four runs ... Aaron Palensky leads the Huskers with a slash line of .345/.441/.496 to go with 11 doubles and 19 driven in ... Joe Acker is also hitting over .300 at .310 ... As a staff, NU boasts a 3.79 earned run average while opponents hit .243 against them ... Husker pitchers have tallied 236 strikeouts against 87 walks.
A LOOK AT THE SERIES
Nebraska owns a 173-114 edge in the all-time series, dating back to 1898 ... The Cornhuskers have won five of the last six meetings, including a 7-0 win on April 2 at Tointon Family Stadium ... In the season's first meeting, Huskers starter Kyle Perry went seven innings and allowed three hits with three strikeouts ... K-State managed just four hits off Nebraska in the game, highlighted by a Dylan Phillips double ... Jaxon Hallmark delivered an inside-the-park grand slam in the top of the first inning while Palensky had two hits ... K-State is 42-90 all-time in Lincoln, last winning in 2018 (4-3) ... The Cats are 2-8 in the last 10 matchups overall and the sides have split the last 10 meetings in Lincoln ... K-State and Nebraska have met every year since 1978.
MAKING A LITTLE HISTORY
K-State's 2-0 victory over No. 14 Texas marked the first program's first-ever shutout of the Longhorns while earning the team's first conference series win of the year ... The series victory was just the second in school history on the road against a ranked opponent ... It was the Wildcats' first road win in Austin since 2013 ... K-State has won three of its last four games against top-25 teams after going 0-8 against ranked teams in 2018.
POWER SURGE
K-State hit one home run in all three games of the Texas series and have hit a total of six homers in the last four overall ... Prior to its three-homer game against Omaha on April 10, the K-State offense had just two home runs over its last 11 games - including a stretch of five consecutive outings without a bomb ... Caleb Littlejim hit his team-leading sixth home run on Saturday ... The junior did not have an at-bat his previous two seasons ... Newcomers Chris Ceballos and Zach Kokoska each have five homers on the season, with two of Ceballos' long balls coming in Big 12 play ... The Wildcats are 5-1 when hitting multiple home runs.
KOKO GOIN' LOCO
K-State sophomore Zach Kokoska has catapulted himself to the top of K-State's leaderboard in all three slash categories with a .333 average, .404 on-base percentage and a .525 slugging percentage ... Kokoska is currently riding a season-long six-game hitting streak, hitting .381 with two homers and six RBI in that stretch ... The Latrobe, Pennsylvania, product hit in the cleanup spot for the first time in the Texas series ... He is second on the team with 23 runs batted in and 11 multi-hit games ... Kokoska boasts a team-best .353 average in Big 12 games ... Kokoska, in his first season at K-State after transferring from Virginia Tech, has hit safely in 18 of his last 24 games, raising his average from .262 to .333.
WINNING TIME
In K-State's 16 wins this season, the Wildcats are hitting .335 (53-for-158) with runners in scoring position and .317 (58-for-183) with two outs ... Conversely, the Cats have a .191 average (35-for-183) with runners in scoring position while hitting .173 (38-for-220) with two outs over 21 losses ... K-State has produced 36 two-out RBI in victories with just 18 in 21 losses ... Overall, K-State hits .303 in victories against just .223 in defeats ... In 21 defeats, K-State pitchers have combined for 106 walks (5.1 per game) while in victories the staff averages 3.5 walks per game (56 walks in 16 wins) ... K-State posts a 2.5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in wins while owning a 1.7 mark in losses.
NO K FOR YOU
Junior Will Brennan owns the title of toughest player to strike out in the nation, going 23.0 at-bats per strikeout this season (138 AB, 6 K) ... Brennan has not struck out in his last 47 at-bats ... The Stilwell native has finished each of the last two seasons as the toughest hitter in the conference to punch out ... In 2017, Brennan had 12 strikeouts in 183 at-bats and only went down on strikes 11 times in 220 at-bats last season ... Brennan owns a career at-bat-to-strikeout ratio of 18.7, with just 29 strikeouts in 541 at-bats.
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