SE: 10 Takeaways from K-State Baseball’s Perfect Return to Manhattan
Mar 02, 2021 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
1. Jordan Wicks is a very good pitcher. That's been clear for a while now and in seven scoreless innings against Oregon State last week, he announced it to anyone who follows college baseball.
On Friday at Tointon Family Stadium, we learned that Wicks doesn't need to be perfect for K-State Baseball to win.
2. Wicks gave up a three-run homer against Western Michigan, part of a four-run fourth inning for the Broncos. Those were the only earned runs Wicks would surrender all day.
"I thought he was awesome early on. He made one mistake really. He was up 0-2, and they hit the big home run by Devine, who is a veteran player," head coach Pete Hughes said. "I'm sure the most disappointed person in our program for making that mistake is Jordan himself."
A lot of the preseason hype coming this program's way in 2021 has to do with the starting rotation. Wicks has been the headliner, a regular on preseason award watch lists and a first-round pick in almost every MLB Mock Draft.
This is what "not perfect" Jordan Wicks looked like on Friday afternoon:
6.0 innings pitched, 10 strikeouts, four earned runs.
3. Wicks threw his best pitch, a changeup, 33 times against Western Michigan. That resulted in 18 swinging strikes.
For context, no pitcher in MLB since 2015 has generated swinging strikes on more than 51.6% of their changeups.
On Friday, Wicks got the Broncos to swing and miss at 54.6%
You can thank KSU Baseball Analytics for that one.
4. The bottom line is that Wicks was really good on Friday night, even if K-State trailed 5-4 when he left the game.
"I thought the changeup was big today. It was really consistent, had a lot of great action, and it was late. When you get those three things going, you know you're going to have pretty good success," Wicks said. "It was just a matter of missing by a couple of inches here and there, and that stuff just happens."
With back-to-back career-high strikeout performances, Wicks has been everything K-State and the college baseball world expected to start the 2021 season.
For this K-State Baseball team, what happened after he left the game might be even more important.
5. In a 2:04 second hype video that K-State Baseball released on Twitter before the team's home opener, Hughes and his players said the word "Omaha" nine different times.
That's one "Omaha" every 14 seconds. Peyton Manning and his lawyers will presumably be in touch.
All joking aside, it's going to be very difficult for K-State to make a run at the College World Series if Wicks has to be perfect in order for the Wildcats to win.
6. After he left the game on Friday, the team's bullpen took over. It's a group that got off to an uneven start in Arizona, letting Gonzaga blow a game open before New Mexico came back to walk off the Wildcats on Sunday.
That same group helped K-State grab its first win of the season without a quality start (when a starting pitcher throws at least six innings and gives up no more than three earned runs) in a 9-8 win over the Broncos on Friday.
7. The bullpen would continue to impress throughout the weekend. Kasey Ford began the season as the team's fourth starter, but in a three-game series against Western Michigan, he was the first guy out of the bullpen on Saturday afternoon.
With the 'Cats up 5-1, runners on first and second and no outs in the sixth inning, Ford came in and immediately forced a ground-ball double play. Another grounder ended the inning and got the Wildcats out of a jam.
Ford would give up just one earned run before handing the ball to Nico Rodriguez, who was perfect through the final 1 2/3 innings of an 11-3 win on Saturday.
8. Sunday was the masterpiece, as Tyler Eckberg and Caleb Littlejim combined to protect a one-run K-State lead for three innings in a 2-1 victory over Western Michigan.
The Broncos put the tying run in scoring position in every inning, but a locked-in performance from the bullpen – plus an error-free day from the defense – got the win.
"It's awesome, and not just the bullpen. We know we can have any guy on our team come in and pitch," Sunday starter Connor McCullough said. "We can let guys hit the ball and we have a defense behind us that's going to make plays for us regardless. It's also us having confidence in them that allows us to have confidence."
For his part, McCullough was again masterful in 5 1/3 innings of work on Sunday, allowing just one run and striking out six.
9. One more note about confidence. It's time to have a conversation about Nick Goodwin.
Take almost every K-State team this season and one of the most important players on the roster has been a freshman.
Deuce Vaughn on football, Nijel Pack on men's basketball, Aliyah Carter and Mackenzie Morris on volleyball, Alaina Werremeyer on soccer.
Enter Goodwin.
10. When he began Saturday's win over Western Michigan with an RBI double and home run, the freshman was hitting .474 through the first 19 at bats of his college career.
None of those were bigger than the homer he crushed in the eighth inning on Friday night, to tie things up as K-State came all the way back to beat the Broncos.
"I think I put a few ABs together pretty well. Late in the game, around the seventh inning I think, I came up in a big situation with the bases loaded and ended up striking out," Goodwin said. "I came back in the 8th and redeemed myself."
1. Jordan Wicks is a very good pitcher. That's been clear for a while now and in seven scoreless innings against Oregon State last week, he announced it to anyone who follows college baseball.
On Friday at Tointon Family Stadium, we learned that Wicks doesn't need to be perfect for K-State Baseball to win.
2. Wicks gave up a three-run homer against Western Michigan, part of a four-run fourth inning for the Broncos. Those were the only earned runs Wicks would surrender all day.
"I thought he was awesome early on. He made one mistake really. He was up 0-2, and they hit the big home run by Devine, who is a veteran player," head coach Pete Hughes said. "I'm sure the most disappointed person in our program for making that mistake is Jordan himself."
A lot of the preseason hype coming this program's way in 2021 has to do with the starting rotation. Wicks has been the headliner, a regular on preseason award watch lists and a first-round pick in almost every MLB Mock Draft.
This is what "not perfect" Jordan Wicks looked like on Friday afternoon:
6.0 innings pitched, 10 strikeouts, four earned runs.
Another 10 strikeout performance from Jordan Wicks #KStateBSB x @wicks_jordan pic.twitter.com/utjawZda4E
— K-State Baseball (@KStateBSB) February 26, 2021
3. Wicks threw his best pitch, a changeup, 33 times against Western Michigan. That resulted in 18 swinging strikes.
For context, no pitcher in MLB since 2015 has generated swinging strikes on more than 51.6% of their changeups.
On Friday, Wicks got the Broncos to swing and miss at 54.6%
You can thank KSU Baseball Analytics for that one.
Jordan Wicks generated 18 swinging strikes on 33 changeups today (54.6%). For further context, the MLB record (Statcast-era) is 51.6%.
— KSU Baseball Analytics (@ksu_analytics) February 27, 2021
4. The bottom line is that Wicks was really good on Friday night, even if K-State trailed 5-4 when he left the game.
"I thought the changeup was big today. It was really consistent, had a lot of great action, and it was late. When you get those three things going, you know you're going to have pretty good success," Wicks said. "It was just a matter of missing by a couple of inches here and there, and that stuff just happens."
With back-to-back career-high strikeout performances, Wicks has been everything K-State and the college baseball world expected to start the 2021 season.
For this K-State Baseball team, what happened after he left the game might be even more important.
5. In a 2:04 second hype video that K-State Baseball released on Twitter before the team's home opener, Hughes and his players said the word "Omaha" nine different times.
The Omaha standard!#NCAABaseball x 🎥 @KStateBSB pic.twitter.com/erdES1JbRd
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) February 26, 2021
That's one "Omaha" every 14 seconds. Peyton Manning and his lawyers will presumably be in touch.
All joking aside, it's going to be very difficult for K-State to make a run at the College World Series if Wicks has to be perfect in order for the Wildcats to win.
6. After he left the game on Friday, the team's bullpen took over. It's a group that got off to an uneven start in Arizona, letting Gonzaga blow a game open before New Mexico came back to walk off the Wildcats on Sunday.
That same group helped K-State grab its first win of the season without a quality start (when a starting pitcher throws at least six innings and gives up no more than three earned runs) in a 9-8 win over the Broncos on Friday.
7. The bullpen would continue to impress throughout the weekend. Kasey Ford began the season as the team's fourth starter, but in a three-game series against Western Michigan, he was the first guy out of the bullpen on Saturday afternoon.
With the 'Cats up 5-1, runners on first and second and no outs in the sixth inning, Ford came in and immediately forced a ground-ball double play. Another grounder ended the inning and got the Wildcats out of a jam.
Ford would give up just one earned run before handing the ball to Nico Rodriguez, who was perfect through the final 1 2/3 innings of an 11-3 win on Saturday.
8. Sunday was the masterpiece, as Tyler Eckberg and Caleb Littlejim combined to protect a one-run K-State lead for three innings in a 2-1 victory over Western Michigan.
The Broncos put the tying run in scoring position in every inning, but a locked-in performance from the bullpen – plus an error-free day from the defense – got the win.
Wildcats flash the leather one more time as Littlejim grabs the save in the series sweep over Western Michigan. #KStateBSB pic.twitter.com/eNWxDb26kh
— K-State Baseball (@KStateBSB) February 28, 2021
"It's awesome, and not just the bullpen. We know we can have any guy on our team come in and pitch," Sunday starter Connor McCullough said. "We can let guys hit the ball and we have a defense behind us that's going to make plays for us regardless. It's also us having confidence in them that allows us to have confidence."
For his part, McCullough was again masterful in 5 1/3 innings of work on Sunday, allowing just one run and striking out six.
9. One more note about confidence. It's time to have a conversation about Nick Goodwin.
Take almost every K-State team this season and one of the most important players on the roster has been a freshman.
Deuce Vaughn on football, Nijel Pack on men's basketball, Aliyah Carter and Mackenzie Morris on volleyball, Alaina Werremeyer on soccer.
Enter Goodwin.
Goodbye baseball! Nick Goodwin hammers his first career homer to tie it up at 8#KStateBSB pic.twitter.com/JdVpNoxtoT
— K-State Baseball (@KStateBSB) February 27, 2021
10. When he began Saturday's win over Western Michigan with an RBI double and home run, the freshman was hitting .474 through the first 19 at bats of his college career.
None of those were bigger than the homer he crushed in the eighth inning on Friday night, to tie things up as K-State came all the way back to beat the Broncos.
"I think I put a few ABs together pretty well. Late in the game, around the seventh inning I think, I came up in a big situation with the bases loaded and ended up striking out," Goodwin said. "I came back in the 8th and redeemed myself."
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