Kansas State University Athletics
Friday, April 23
Manhattan, KS
6 p.m.
Kansas State University
vs
West Virginia
Wildcats Begin Second Half of Big 12 Slate Friday vs. WVU
Apr 22, 2021 | Baseball
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Winners of four of its last five games, K-State continues its season-long homestand with a three-game conference series against West Virginia beginning Friday at 6 p.m. at Tointon Family Stadium.
Game two of the series is set for Saturday at 4 p.m., with the finale slated for a 1 p.m. first pitch Sunday. K-State (21-15, 4-8 Big 12) is coming off a weekend series victory over Oklahoma, in which the Wildcats took the series' rubber game, 8-3, to claim their first series victory over OU since 2013.
West Virginia (14-16, 5-7 Big 12) sits one game ahead of the Wildcats in the conference standings after the dropping two of three games at home to Texas Tech last weekend.
All three games will be broadcast on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and the ESPN app. Friday's and Saturday's games will be carried on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) with the contest on Sunday broadcast on the K-State Sports Radio Network. Free, streaming audio is available at K-StateSports.com/watch.
Single-game tickets for the series are now on sale through the K-State Ticket Office at K-StateSports.com/tickets or by calling (800) 221-CATS. Capacity at Tointon Family Stadium has been increased to 50 percent, with all tickets being sold as general admission and no longer in reserved pods. The first 175 students will also be admitted for free with their K-State student ID with designated seating in the right field bleachers.
All fans in attendance will be required to wear a face covering and maintain social distance from other pods of fans. Due to health and safety guidelines, players will not be available for autographs before or after each game.
GAME #37
K-STATE (21-15, 4-8 BIG 12) vs. WEST VIRGINIA (14-16, 5-7 BIG 12)
Friday, April 23 // 6 p.m. // Tointon Family Stadium (2,344) // Manhattan, Kan.
LHP Jordan Wicks (4-2, 3.42 ERA) vs. LHP Jackson Wolf (3-4, 3.45 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // Brian Smoller, Mike Clark
Radio: KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) // John Kurtz, Matt Walters
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/watch // 1350KMAN.com
Buy Tickets | Live Stats
GAME #38
K-STATE (21-15, 4-8 BIG 12) vs. WEST VIRGINIA (14-16, 5-7 BIG 12)
Saturday, April 24 // 4 p.m. // Tointon Family Stadium (2,344) // Manhattan, Kan.
RHP Connor McCullough (2-2, 4.56 ERA) vs. LHP Jake Carr (1-2, 10.96 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // Brian Smoller, Mike Clark
Radio: KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) // John Kurtz, Matt Walters
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/watch // 1350KMAN.com
Buy Tickets | Live Stats
GAME #39
K-STATE (21-15, 4-8 BIG 12) vs. WEST VIRGINIA (14-16, 5-7 BIG 12)
Sunday, April 25 // 1 p.m. // Tointon Family Stadium (2,344) // Manhattan, Kan.
RHP Carson Seymour (2-4, 6.53 ERA) vs. LHP Ben Hampton (3-1, 3.81 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // Brian Smoller, Mike Clark
Radio: KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) // John Kurtz, Matt Walters
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/watch // 1350KMAN.com
Buy Tickets | Live Stats
A LOOK AT K-STATE
K-State continues its season-long 12-game homestand with a three-game series against West Virginia at Tointon Family Stadium ... The Wildcats are coming off a 4-1 week, including a weekend series win over Oklahoma and a two-game midweek sweep over Northern Colorado ... The weekend marked K-State's first series victory over Oklahoma since 2013 ... Dylan Phillips delivered a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning in the series opener Saturday and lifted a go-ahead two-run homer in the series' rubber game on Sunday ... Tyler Eckberg earned wins in both contests, logging a total of six innings of scoreless relief in two games ... Jordan Wicks tossed seven innings in the series opener, allowing just three hits and one run while striking out seven ... In the series, the K-State bullpen combined to allow one earned run over 13 2/3 innings (0.66 ERA) while striking out 13 and walking four ... Phillips had a team-high five hits over the weekend while he and Cameron Uselton both drove in three runs ... Dylan Caplinger lifted his first career home run in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader ... Zach Kokoska extended his career-long on-base streak to 32 game and hitting streak to 14 contests.
SCOUTING WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia (14-16, 5-7 Big 12) enters the weekend after dropping its rubber game against Texas Tech at home on Sunday ... WVU has won one of four Big 12 series so far this season, taking two of three games against Kansas ... The Mountaineers are 3-7 in their last 10 games ... Offensively, WVU is led by Hudson Byorick who owns a .310 average and seven doubles ... Kevin Brophy and Matt McCormick lead the Mountaineers with six homers each and Mikey Kluska has a team-best 21 runs batted in ... West Virginia ranks last in the conference in average (.251), on-base percentage (.347) and slugging (.388) ... Lefty starter Jackson Wolf leads the team with 54 strikeouts in 47 innings (eight starts).
INSIDE THE SERIES
K-State trails the all-time series with West Virginia, 9-12 (9-12 Big 12) ... At home, the Wildcats are 6-6 against the Mountaineers ... K-State last won a series against WVU in 2017, winning two of three games at Tointon Family Stadium ... The Cats have won three of seven series since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 prior to the 2013 season ... The teams have split the last eight meetings overall.
BIG BAT CATS
After going without a home run in the season's opening weekend (four games), the Wildcats have erupted for 51 home runs over the last 32 games ... Junior Zach Kokoska leads the way with 12 homers while sophomore Dylan Phillips has 10 and senior Cameron Thompson has eight ... The trio all rank in the Big 12's top 10, as no other club has more than two ... Kokoska ranks second in the league with his 12 homers, which is tied for seventh-most in a single season in K-State history ... As a team, K-State has homered in 13 of the last 14 contests, including a stretch of 11 straight games, and has launched multiple home runs 11 times ... 14 different Cats have homered this season, with five players turning in a multi-homer game ... The 14 different players with a homer equal the team's most ever in a season (1997) season and are tied for the most in the country this season ... K-State's 51 home runs are seventh-most in the country and tied for ninth in a single season in program history.
WE'RE GOIN' STREAKING
Zach Kokoska extended his career-long on-base streak to 32 games with a hit in all three games against the Sooners ... Additionally, his 14-game hitting streak is a career-long stretch and one away from becoming the first Wildcat with a hitting streak of 15 games or longer since Tanner DeVinny in 2014 (15 games) ... Dylan Phillips put together a 32-game on base streak that went back to last season and ended on March 27 at Oklahoma State ... K-State's stretch of 11 straight games with a home run came to an end in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader vs. OU ... It was tied for the longest streak in the country (Arkansas).
THE FRIENDLY CONFINES
K-State, in the midst of a season-long 12-game homestand, is 16-5 this year at Tointon Family Stadium ... The Cats have won their last eight of their last nine home games and 14 of their last 17 overall ... At home, the Wildcat offense is hitting .313 while launching 42 home runs ... K-State has homered in 19 of its last 21 games at home ... K-State averages 8.0 runs per game at Tointon Family Stadium as opposed to 3.4 runs a game in road and neutral contests ... In true road games, the Cats average three runs a game with an average of .203 ... The K-State pitching staff boasts an ERA of 3.18 at home while the bullpen is even lower at 2.05.
GIMME A BREAK, SCHEDULEMAKERS
K-State began its Big 12 schedule with three straight top-13 opponents - marking the toughest three-week stretch to start the league schedule in Big 12 history for any team (past or present Big 12 members) ... It has happened only three times in which a team has faced three straight top-13 teams to begin league play - and neither faced two top-five teams as the Wildcats did against No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 3 Texas in consecutive weekends ... Additionally, two of the Cats' first three conference series were on the road ... Oklahoma marked the first league opponent to not be ranked in at least one poll.
KOKO BE LOCO
Junior outfielder Zach Kokoska is riding a career-long 32-game on base streak to go with a career-best 14-game hitting streak ... Over the last 11 contests, Kokoska has a team-best .400 average to go with six doubles, four homers and 11 RBI ... His on-base percentage of .441 is also a team high ... The Latrobe, Pa, product has seven multi-hit games during his hitting streak with a run batted in 10 outings ... His 12 homers rank second in the conference and are tied for seventh-most in a single season in K-State history (record 16 set in 1997).
WHAMMER HAMMER
Dylan Phillips' go-ahead two-run homer against Oklahoma Saturday was his 10th of the season, tying his single-season high, and the 25th of his career .. His 25 homers rank eighth in program history ... Phillips has two multi-homer game this season and four in his career ... Phillips has recorded a base hit in 40 of his last 47 games, including 18 multi-hit efforts ... With 39 runs batted in this season, Phillips has driven in 50 runs over his last 43 games while recording an RBI in 27 of those games ... The two-way star saw a streak of 10 consecutive games with an RBI snapped March 14 at Rice ... His season average of .365 is good for seventh in the Big 12 while his RBI total is fourth ... He ranks in the league's top 10 in all three slash categories.
WICKY WICKY YEAH
K-State lefty Jordan Wicks racked up the preseason honors, including being named the 2021 Big 12 Co-Preseason Pitcher of the Year ... Wicks was tabbed a preseason all-American by D1Baseball, Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and NCBWA ... The Conway, Ark., product is K-State's first preseason all-America nod since 2014 and the first Big 12 preseason of-the-year award winner ... Wicks was also one of 55 named to USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award Watch List, which recognizes the nation's premier amateur player ... Following his 10-strikeout, seven scoreless innings against Oregon State on Opening Day, Wicks was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and National Pitcher of the Week by the NCBWA ... Wicks leads the Big 12 with his 73 strikeouts and has reached double-digit strikeouts three times ... Five of his nine starts this season have been quality efforts after his seven-inning, one-run performance Friday... Dating back to last season, Wicks has a 2.43 ERA (22 ER, 81.1 IP) with 99 strikeouts.
FROM THE PEN
The K-State bullpen owns an ERA of 4.38 (66 ER, 135.2 IP) with 157 strikeouts against 72 walks after throwing 13 2/3 innings with one earned run allowed in three games (0.66 ERA) against the Sooners (13 K, 4 BB) ... Over the last five games, the pen has an ERA of 0.38 (1 ER, 23.2 IP) with 33 strikeouts and seven walks ... Tyler Eckberg has tossed seven shutout innings with two hits allowed over the team's last five contests ... At home, the K-State bullpen has a 2.05 ERA (20 ER, 88 IP) while posting an earned run average of 8.69 (46 ER, 47.2 IP) in road and neutral contests ... In the season's first 10 games, the bullpen yielded a 7.22 ERA (27 ER, 33.2 IP) with 21 strikeouts and 20 walks ... The pen owned a March ERA of 2.93 (19 ER, 58.1 IP), with Jaxson Passino leading the way with 13 strikeouts in eight innings ... In the series at Texas, the pen had a 17.10 ERA, allowing 19 earned runs in 10 innings with 11 walks and nine strikeouts.
BY TH3 NUM8ER5
K-State has a run differential of +24 after outscoring UNC and Oklahoma by a combined 17 runs ... K-State is 15-5 when scoring the game's first run and has outscored opponents by 19 runs in the game's first two innings (49-30) ... K-State is 10-1 when hitting multiple home runs but 11-14 when hitting one or no homers ... The Cats are 5-3 in one-run contests this season, including 2-0 in extra-inning games.
Game two of the series is set for Saturday at 4 p.m., with the finale slated for a 1 p.m. first pitch Sunday. K-State (21-15, 4-8 Big 12) is coming off a weekend series victory over Oklahoma, in which the Wildcats took the series' rubber game, 8-3, to claim their first series victory over OU since 2013.
West Virginia (14-16, 5-7 Big 12) sits one game ahead of the Wildcats in the conference standings after the dropping two of three games at home to Texas Tech last weekend.
All three games will be broadcast on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and the ESPN app. Friday's and Saturday's games will be carried on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) with the contest on Sunday broadcast on the K-State Sports Radio Network. Free, streaming audio is available at K-StateSports.com/watch.
Single-game tickets for the series are now on sale through the K-State Ticket Office at K-StateSports.com/tickets or by calling (800) 221-CATS. Capacity at Tointon Family Stadium has been increased to 50 percent, with all tickets being sold as general admission and no longer in reserved pods. The first 175 students will also be admitted for free with their K-State student ID with designated seating in the right field bleachers.
All fans in attendance will be required to wear a face covering and maintain social distance from other pods of fans. Due to health and safety guidelines, players will not be available for autographs before or after each game.
GAME #37
K-STATE (21-15, 4-8 BIG 12) vs. WEST VIRGINIA (14-16, 5-7 BIG 12)
Friday, April 23 // 6 p.m. // Tointon Family Stadium (2,344) // Manhattan, Kan.
LHP Jordan Wicks (4-2, 3.42 ERA) vs. LHP Jackson Wolf (3-4, 3.45 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // Brian Smoller, Mike Clark
Radio: KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) // John Kurtz, Matt Walters
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/watch // 1350KMAN.com
Buy Tickets | Live Stats
GAME #38
K-STATE (21-15, 4-8 BIG 12) vs. WEST VIRGINIA (14-16, 5-7 BIG 12)
Saturday, April 24 // 4 p.m. // Tointon Family Stadium (2,344) // Manhattan, Kan.
RHP Connor McCullough (2-2, 4.56 ERA) vs. LHP Jake Carr (1-2, 10.96 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // Brian Smoller, Mike Clark
Radio: KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) // John Kurtz, Matt Walters
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/watch // 1350KMAN.com
Buy Tickets | Live Stats
GAME #39
K-STATE (21-15, 4-8 BIG 12) vs. WEST VIRGINIA (14-16, 5-7 BIG 12)
Sunday, April 25 // 1 p.m. // Tointon Family Stadium (2,344) // Manhattan, Kan.
RHP Carson Seymour (2-4, 6.53 ERA) vs. LHP Ben Hampton (3-1, 3.81 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // Brian Smoller, Mike Clark
Radio: KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM) // John Kurtz, Matt Walters
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/watch // 1350KMAN.com
Buy Tickets | Live Stats
A LOOK AT K-STATE
K-State continues its season-long 12-game homestand with a three-game series against West Virginia at Tointon Family Stadium ... The Wildcats are coming off a 4-1 week, including a weekend series win over Oklahoma and a two-game midweek sweep over Northern Colorado ... The weekend marked K-State's first series victory over Oklahoma since 2013 ... Dylan Phillips delivered a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning in the series opener Saturday and lifted a go-ahead two-run homer in the series' rubber game on Sunday ... Tyler Eckberg earned wins in both contests, logging a total of six innings of scoreless relief in two games ... Jordan Wicks tossed seven innings in the series opener, allowing just three hits and one run while striking out seven ... In the series, the K-State bullpen combined to allow one earned run over 13 2/3 innings (0.66 ERA) while striking out 13 and walking four ... Phillips had a team-high five hits over the weekend while he and Cameron Uselton both drove in three runs ... Dylan Caplinger lifted his first career home run in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader ... Zach Kokoska extended his career-long on-base streak to 32 game and hitting streak to 14 contests.
SCOUTING WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia (14-16, 5-7 Big 12) enters the weekend after dropping its rubber game against Texas Tech at home on Sunday ... WVU has won one of four Big 12 series so far this season, taking two of three games against Kansas ... The Mountaineers are 3-7 in their last 10 games ... Offensively, WVU is led by Hudson Byorick who owns a .310 average and seven doubles ... Kevin Brophy and Matt McCormick lead the Mountaineers with six homers each and Mikey Kluska has a team-best 21 runs batted in ... West Virginia ranks last in the conference in average (.251), on-base percentage (.347) and slugging (.388) ... Lefty starter Jackson Wolf leads the team with 54 strikeouts in 47 innings (eight starts).
INSIDE THE SERIES
K-State trails the all-time series with West Virginia, 9-12 (9-12 Big 12) ... At home, the Wildcats are 6-6 against the Mountaineers ... K-State last won a series against WVU in 2017, winning two of three games at Tointon Family Stadium ... The Cats have won three of seven series since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 prior to the 2013 season ... The teams have split the last eight meetings overall.
BIG BAT CATS
After going without a home run in the season's opening weekend (four games), the Wildcats have erupted for 51 home runs over the last 32 games ... Junior Zach Kokoska leads the way with 12 homers while sophomore Dylan Phillips has 10 and senior Cameron Thompson has eight ... The trio all rank in the Big 12's top 10, as no other club has more than two ... Kokoska ranks second in the league with his 12 homers, which is tied for seventh-most in a single season in K-State history ... As a team, K-State has homered in 13 of the last 14 contests, including a stretch of 11 straight games, and has launched multiple home runs 11 times ... 14 different Cats have homered this season, with five players turning in a multi-homer game ... The 14 different players with a homer equal the team's most ever in a season (1997) season and are tied for the most in the country this season ... K-State's 51 home runs are seventh-most in the country and tied for ninth in a single season in program history.
WE'RE GOIN' STREAKING
Zach Kokoska extended his career-long on-base streak to 32 games with a hit in all three games against the Sooners ... Additionally, his 14-game hitting streak is a career-long stretch and one away from becoming the first Wildcat with a hitting streak of 15 games or longer since Tanner DeVinny in 2014 (15 games) ... Dylan Phillips put together a 32-game on base streak that went back to last season and ended on March 27 at Oklahoma State ... K-State's stretch of 11 straight games with a home run came to an end in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader vs. OU ... It was tied for the longest streak in the country (Arkansas).
THE FRIENDLY CONFINES
K-State, in the midst of a season-long 12-game homestand, is 16-5 this year at Tointon Family Stadium ... The Cats have won their last eight of their last nine home games and 14 of their last 17 overall ... At home, the Wildcat offense is hitting .313 while launching 42 home runs ... K-State has homered in 19 of its last 21 games at home ... K-State averages 8.0 runs per game at Tointon Family Stadium as opposed to 3.4 runs a game in road and neutral contests ... In true road games, the Cats average three runs a game with an average of .203 ... The K-State pitching staff boasts an ERA of 3.18 at home while the bullpen is even lower at 2.05.
GIMME A BREAK, SCHEDULEMAKERS
K-State began its Big 12 schedule with three straight top-13 opponents - marking the toughest three-week stretch to start the league schedule in Big 12 history for any team (past or present Big 12 members) ... It has happened only three times in which a team has faced three straight top-13 teams to begin league play - and neither faced two top-five teams as the Wildcats did against No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 3 Texas in consecutive weekends ... Additionally, two of the Cats' first three conference series were on the road ... Oklahoma marked the first league opponent to not be ranked in at least one poll.
KOKO BE LOCO
Junior outfielder Zach Kokoska is riding a career-long 32-game on base streak to go with a career-best 14-game hitting streak ... Over the last 11 contests, Kokoska has a team-best .400 average to go with six doubles, four homers and 11 RBI ... His on-base percentage of .441 is also a team high ... The Latrobe, Pa, product has seven multi-hit games during his hitting streak with a run batted in 10 outings ... His 12 homers rank second in the conference and are tied for seventh-most in a single season in K-State history (record 16 set in 1997).
WHAMMER HAMMER
Dylan Phillips' go-ahead two-run homer against Oklahoma Saturday was his 10th of the season, tying his single-season high, and the 25th of his career .. His 25 homers rank eighth in program history ... Phillips has two multi-homer game this season and four in his career ... Phillips has recorded a base hit in 40 of his last 47 games, including 18 multi-hit efforts ... With 39 runs batted in this season, Phillips has driven in 50 runs over his last 43 games while recording an RBI in 27 of those games ... The two-way star saw a streak of 10 consecutive games with an RBI snapped March 14 at Rice ... His season average of .365 is good for seventh in the Big 12 while his RBI total is fourth ... He ranks in the league's top 10 in all three slash categories.
WICKY WICKY YEAH
K-State lefty Jordan Wicks racked up the preseason honors, including being named the 2021 Big 12 Co-Preseason Pitcher of the Year ... Wicks was tabbed a preseason all-American by D1Baseball, Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and NCBWA ... The Conway, Ark., product is K-State's first preseason all-America nod since 2014 and the first Big 12 preseason of-the-year award winner ... Wicks was also one of 55 named to USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award Watch List, which recognizes the nation's premier amateur player ... Following his 10-strikeout, seven scoreless innings against Oregon State on Opening Day, Wicks was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and National Pitcher of the Week by the NCBWA ... Wicks leads the Big 12 with his 73 strikeouts and has reached double-digit strikeouts three times ... Five of his nine starts this season have been quality efforts after his seven-inning, one-run performance Friday... Dating back to last season, Wicks has a 2.43 ERA (22 ER, 81.1 IP) with 99 strikeouts.
FROM THE PEN
The K-State bullpen owns an ERA of 4.38 (66 ER, 135.2 IP) with 157 strikeouts against 72 walks after throwing 13 2/3 innings with one earned run allowed in three games (0.66 ERA) against the Sooners (13 K, 4 BB) ... Over the last five games, the pen has an ERA of 0.38 (1 ER, 23.2 IP) with 33 strikeouts and seven walks ... Tyler Eckberg has tossed seven shutout innings with two hits allowed over the team's last five contests ... At home, the K-State bullpen has a 2.05 ERA (20 ER, 88 IP) while posting an earned run average of 8.69 (46 ER, 47.2 IP) in road and neutral contests ... In the season's first 10 games, the bullpen yielded a 7.22 ERA (27 ER, 33.2 IP) with 21 strikeouts and 20 walks ... The pen owned a March ERA of 2.93 (19 ER, 58.1 IP), with Jaxson Passino leading the way with 13 strikeouts in eight innings ... In the series at Texas, the pen had a 17.10 ERA, allowing 19 earned runs in 10 innings with 11 walks and nine strikeouts.
BY TH3 NUM8ER5
K-State has a run differential of +24 after outscoring UNC and Oklahoma by a combined 17 runs ... K-State is 15-5 when scoring the game's first run and has outscored opponents by 19 runs in the game's first two innings (49-30) ... K-State is 10-1 when hitting multiple home runs but 11-14 when hitting one or no homers ... The Cats are 5-3 in one-run contests this season, including 2-0 in extra-inning games.
Players Mentioned
C
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
OF/LHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ 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