SE: K-State Baseball Ready to Step Up with Big 12 Play on Deck
Mar 24, 2021 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
1. Everyone at Tointon Family Stadium knew it was a big moment in the game.
When Chris Ceballos stepped to the plate on Friday night, anyone who had been paying attention throughout the 2021 season knew that for a guy searching for a breakthrough hit, this was the time.
"He's been struggling and we've been trying to get him through it. This game is really hard. It can beat on you pretty good," head coach Pete Hughes said. "I believe in him and I saw it with my own eyes. If it's there, it's there."
With two guys on in a scoreless game against New Mexico, it was finally there for Ceballos. All night.
2. He was hitting .067 coming into the series against the Lobos, but that's not who Ceballos is. After all, he was on the Buster Posey Catcher of the Year Watch List in 2020 and that was the guy who showed up at Tointon on Friday night.
With one out in the fourth inning and a full count, Ceballos ripped an RBI single to left.
Two innings later, again with two strikes, another RBI single up the middle broke a 1-1 tie and fired the Wildcats into a lead they would never relinquish.
3. "It felt awesome," Ceballos said. "The past couple of weeks, I've had pretty good at bats, but they just haven't been falling. It was a matter of just sticking with my approach, just knowing those balls are going to fall in eventually."
When they did, it ignited his teammates and powered the Wildcats to a 7-1 win over New Mexico on Friday night. Ceballos drove in three runs, including the game-winner in the sixth.
"I think it's just a matter of getting those runs in when we get second and third, guys in scoring position," Ceballos said. "I think once we start doing that consistently, we're going to be in the full swing of things. I think that's really the last thing we need to do. I think if we can do that, we're going to have a really good shot in Big 12 play this year."
4. That's about all you can ask for after the last non-conference series of the season. Big 12 baseball awaits this weekend, and the Wildcats know where they still need to lock in.
Thanks to Jordan Wicks, they also know what they have locked up – a dominant pitching performance, every Friday night.
"You need two things to stop momentum, especially when you have traffic on the bases. You need to have stuff, number one, and he has exceptional stuff, and then you need to be the ultimate competitor," Hughes said. "It was a really good outing, I was happy to get him out of there after the sixth inning and even happier that we scored to get him the win."
5. As the ace of the K-State pitching staff, Wicks is an easy player to take for granted. But that would be a mistake, because he's writing a season unlike anything the Wildcats have ever seen.
Through five starts in 2021, Wicks has an ERA of 1.72 with 42 strikeouts. Even those stats are a little misleading, because half of his earned runs this season came on a three-run homer.
By any available metric, the lefty has been phenomenal. Ask Wicks, and he can still get better.
6. "Early on, it took a little bit to settle in. I don't know what the deal was with that. That's something we'll have to iron out in the middle of the week before Oklahoma State," Wicks said. "Just being able to come back and stay in later in the game was huge, to have that consistency."
Against the Lobos on Friday, Wicks was sharp with 10 strikeouts through six innings of work. But he still had to work his way out of trouble, stranding a pair of Lobos in the fourth and fifth innings.
"I think that's one of the biggest keys to start the weekend. The game on Friday sets the tone for the entire weekend," Wicks said. "It was a big spot in the game, and I knew if I was able to get out of the situation, it would be a big momentum shift for the team. Just feeding off of that. I knew it would give a lot of energy to the guys in the dugout and get everybody going."
7. If Wicks provided the energy on Friday, it was the bats who gave the Wildcats a spark on Sunday and a victory in their last non-conference series prior to opening Big 12 play.
After dropping the middle game of the New Mexico series on Saturday, the 'Cats arrived at Tointon on Sunday to find a ballpark where the wind was gusting hard into the outfield.
Hughes called it "classic, early spring Kansas wind." It also meant this was going to be a tricky game for the Wildcats to win with pitching alone. Turns out, that wasn't going to be a problem.
8. 17 runs. Five homers. A grand slam from Zack Kokoska. It was a performance at the plate worth building on as the Wildcats head into conference play.
"I was happy because of the weekend overall. We got Cam Thompson back and feeling good about himself. Great day for Cam today. We need him. Ceballos is a different hitter than he was a week ago," Hughes said. "You've got to be able to play when you're down and keep building and not looking at the scoreboard."
Even when K-State fell behind against the Lobos, the Wildcats didn't change their approach at the plate. And a player like Thompson, still looking to heat up this season, was able to come through with a pair of home runs to power the comeback.
9. He was joined in the slugfest by Dylan Phillips. It seems like the sophomore is always good for a tape-measure homer, in this case, a 458-feet blast to right field that's one of the longest since the Wildcats started tracking home run distance at Tointon Family Stadium.
The end result was a 17-8 win for the Wildcats and a win in what Hughes said was a dress rehearsal for the beginning of conference play.
10. After a midweek loss to Wichita State on Wednesday, K-State will play nine straight Big 12 games against ranked opponents.
"You've got to learn how to win that rubber match if you want to do a good job in the Big 12. To be able to bounce back and come out and answer an early lead," Hughes said. "A lot of good things today. Most importantly we get a series win."
1. Everyone at Tointon Family Stadium knew it was a big moment in the game.
When Chris Ceballos stepped to the plate on Friday night, anyone who had been paying attention throughout the 2021 season knew that for a guy searching for a breakthrough hit, this was the time.
"He's been struggling and we've been trying to get him through it. This game is really hard. It can beat on you pretty good," head coach Pete Hughes said. "I believe in him and I saw it with my own eyes. If it's there, it's there."
With two guys on in a scoreless game against New Mexico, it was finally there for Ceballos. All night.
2. He was hitting .067 coming into the series against the Lobos, but that's not who Ceballos is. After all, he was on the Buster Posey Catcher of the Year Watch List in 2020 and that was the guy who showed up at Tointon on Friday night.
With one out in the fourth inning and a full count, Ceballos ripped an RBI single to left.
Ceballos sends a rope into left to bring home Thompson and the 'Cats score first #KStateBSB 1 - UNM 0 | End 4 pic.twitter.com/fK3aXMuZxr
— K-State Baseball (@KStateBSB) March 20, 2021
Two innings later, again with two strikes, another RBI single up the middle broke a 1-1 tie and fired the Wildcats into a lead they would never relinquish.
.@ChrisCeballos20 does it again... A single up the middle plates two for CC's 3rd RBI of the night. #KStateBSB 3 - UNM 1 | Bot 6 pic.twitter.com/T25gqjHqlq
— K-State Baseball (@KStateBSB) March 20, 2021
3. "It felt awesome," Ceballos said. "The past couple of weeks, I've had pretty good at bats, but they just haven't been falling. It was a matter of just sticking with my approach, just knowing those balls are going to fall in eventually."
When they did, it ignited his teammates and powered the Wildcats to a 7-1 win over New Mexico on Friday night. Ceballos drove in three runs, including the game-winner in the sixth.
"I think it's just a matter of getting those runs in when we get second and third, guys in scoring position," Ceballos said. "I think once we start doing that consistently, we're going to be in the full swing of things. I think that's really the last thing we need to do. I think if we can do that, we're going to have a really good shot in Big 12 play this year."
4. That's about all you can ask for after the last non-conference series of the season. Big 12 baseball awaits this weekend, and the Wildcats know where they still need to lock in.
Thanks to Jordan Wicks, they also know what they have locked up – a dominant pitching performance, every Friday night.
"You need two things to stop momentum, especially when you have traffic on the bases. You need to have stuff, number one, and he has exceptional stuff, and then you need to be the ultimate competitor," Hughes said. "It was a really good outing, I was happy to get him out of there after the sixth inning and even happier that we scored to get him the win."
One of the best in the nation #KStateBSB x @wicks_jordan pic.twitter.com/zAUQ12pGBV
— K-State Baseball (@KStateBSB) March 20, 2021
5. As the ace of the K-State pitching staff, Wicks is an easy player to take for granted. But that would be a mistake, because he's writing a season unlike anything the Wildcats have ever seen.
Through five starts in 2021, Wicks has an ERA of 1.72 with 42 strikeouts. Even those stats are a little misleading, because half of his earned runs this season came on a three-run homer.
By any available metric, the lefty has been phenomenal. Ask Wicks, and he can still get better.
6. "Early on, it took a little bit to settle in. I don't know what the deal was with that. That's something we'll have to iron out in the middle of the week before Oklahoma State," Wicks said. "Just being able to come back and stay in later in the game was huge, to have that consistency."
Against the Lobos on Friday, Wicks was sharp with 10 strikeouts through six innings of work. But he still had to work his way out of trouble, stranding a pair of Lobos in the fourth and fifth innings.
"I think that's one of the biggest keys to start the weekend. The game on Friday sets the tone for the entire weekend," Wicks said. "It was a big spot in the game, and I knew if I was able to get out of the situation, it would be a big momentum shift for the team. Just feeding off of that. I knew it would give a lot of energy to the guys in the dugout and get everybody going."
7. If Wicks provided the energy on Friday, it was the bats who gave the Wildcats a spark on Sunday and a victory in their last non-conference series prior to opening Big 12 play.
After dropping the middle game of the New Mexico series on Saturday, the 'Cats arrived at Tointon on Sunday to find a ballpark where the wind was gusting hard into the outfield.
Hughes called it "classic, early spring Kansas wind." It also meant this was going to be a tricky game for the Wildcats to win with pitching alone. Turns out, that wasn't going to be a problem.
8. 17 runs. Five homers. A grand slam from Zack Kokoska. It was a performance at the plate worth building on as the Wildcats head into conference play.
Tape measure home runs, big league strikeouts, and coaching milestones ⚾️
— K-State Baseball (@KStateBSB) March 22, 2021
This is Wildcat Baseball. #KStateBSB x EMAW pic.twitter.com/NhNiGzH3Oz
"I was happy because of the weekend overall. We got Cam Thompson back and feeling good about himself. Great day for Cam today. We need him. Ceballos is a different hitter than he was a week ago," Hughes said. "You've got to be able to play when you're down and keep building and not looking at the scoreboard."
Even when K-State fell behind against the Lobos, the Wildcats didn't change their approach at the plate. And a player like Thompson, still looking to heat up this season, was able to come through with a pair of home runs to power the comeback.
9. He was joined in the slugfest by Dylan Phillips. It seems like the sophomore is always good for a tape-measure homer, in this case, a 458-feet blast to right field that's one of the longest since the Wildcats started tracking home run distance at Tointon Family Stadium.
The end result was a 17-8 win for the Wildcats and a win in what Hughes said was a dress rehearsal for the beginning of conference play.
10. After a midweek loss to Wichita State on Wednesday, K-State will play nine straight Big 12 games against ranked opponents.
"You've got to learn how to win that rubber match if you want to do a good job in the Big 12. To be able to bounce back and come out and answer an early lead," Hughes said. "A lot of good things today. Most importantly we get a series win."
Players Mentioned
K-State Rowing | Media Day
Tuesday, February 24
K-State Rowing | Weights Practice
Tuesday, February 24
K-State Tennis | Weekend Recap vs Old Dominion & Minnesota
Tuesday, February 24
K-State Track and Field | Sights & Sounds Steve Miller Invitational
Monday, February 23
