Goodwin’s Blast Caps Historic Comeback
Apr 15, 2022 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Kansas State sophomore shortstop Nick Goodwin, who's been around baseball since diapers, and who last month used his first home run of the season to quiet Nebraska's entire dugout, could never had envisioned what was in store for him Thursday night.
With a mighty swing, the Overland Park, Kansas, native sent a three-run homer over the left-center field wall for a go-ahead 8-5 score in the seventh inning against No. 7 Texas, capping what is believed to be one of the greatest comeback victories over a top-10 opponent in school history.
Goodwin had heard many timeworn stories about great baseball moments — father, David, was a Kansas City Royal, and his uncle, Mark, played at K-State in the 1980s and signed with the Baltimore Orioles — but up until the series opener against the Longhorns contended that his first-ever college baseball game against Oregon State was his favorite personal experience at a ballpark.
All that changed as the ball left Goodwin's bat at breakneck speed, climbing and climbing, as the crowd of 1,852 slowly rose to its feet at Tointon Family Stadium in the seventh inning. K-State coaches, players and fans have needed something to cheer about during the toughest opening stretch by a team in the 26-year history of the Big 12 Conference. They'd been close, and they'd fallen short time and time again.
Goodwin, who didn't like how Nebraska chirped a month ago, delivered a stinging blow that annually rings in harmony among the K-State teams that duel with Texas on the gridiron and basketball court.
"No one here," Goodwin said, "likes the Longhorns."
"That group of guys came in and were pretty cocky and expected to win all three of these games," Goodwin continued. "This feels really good."
It's one win, yes, but it was one the Wildcats, 16-16 overall and 2-8 in the Big 12, badly needed. They'd been through so much, going through the grinder at No. 19 TCU, then against No. 6 Oklahoma State, then at No. 4 Texas Tech. No Big 12 team ever slogged through so much nationally ranked muck to finally find daylight at the other side.
"I like to see kids who work their butts off get the result once in a while, because I'm sick of talking about, 'stick with the process, stick with the process,'" Hughes said. "We all want to get paid back. You get paid back by winning. That was great for our kids. It puts us in a good situation. We've got to keep playing better and use this as momentum to turn this around."
Victorious first baseman Dylan Phillips, the all-time home run leader in K-State history who belted two homers — No. 41 and No. 42 — against the Longhorns, finally allowed a grin to creep upon his face late Thursday night as he sat down for the first time following the win.
"Let's make this a daily thing," Phillips said, finally exhaling.
Texas, 25-11 and 5-5, had won 14 of the last 20 against K-State and rode a five-game winning streak into Manhattan. The Longhorns led the Big 12 with a .320 batting average and 57 home runs, while the pitching staff led the league with a 3.47 ERA and six shutouts. Defensively, the Longhorns owned a .983 fielding percentage, which ranked seventh in the nation.
For five innings, it appeared that K-State was in for a long night. The crowd groaned as Dylan Campbell, Douglas Hodo III and Silas Ardoin each homered, and Texas took a 5-1 lead into the sixth inning. Sophomore left-hander Pete Hansen fanned eight of the first 10 batters he faced and appeared to be headed to an 18-1 all-time record as a starter — "The kid is awesome, and his pitch-ability is through the roof," Hughes said — before the Wildcats' bats suddenly heated up.
Momentum swung faster than a restaurant door on taco night and Hansen, the reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, crumpled like never before in his celebrated career. He gave up a career-high six earned runs on eight hits, seven coming over his last 3 1/3 innings. Which left reliever Jared Southard to inherit runners on the corners in the seventh. That's when Goodwin stepped to the plate, and his heroics arrived with a story that he'll tell family about for years to come.
His home run opportunity almost didn't arrive.
Hughes originally called for Goodwin to bunt on the second pitch — "Why don't you go after the first pitch and the second pitch I think I want a safety squeeze," Hughes recalled — before Goodwin fouled the first-pitch hanging slider straight backward on an unbelievable swing. That caused Hughes to change the call — "I just loved his swing, and I knew he was on it," Hughes said — which allowed Goodwin to find his groove.
Next pitch? Fastball.
Gone.
"I was sitting on the fastball looking for a pitch I could hit to the outfield and drive in a run," Goodwin said, "and I just ended up hitting it really well."
Cue the flickering lights and dance music.
"Off the bat, that was a no-doubter," Phillips said. "I just walked a little bit to see how far he hit it."
Connor McCullough saw the ball leave the stadium, too. McCullough, a sophomore right-hander who is slated to start in Saturday's series finale, was busy in the bullpen. Moments prior, McCullough had been scribbling his scouting report while occupying a couch in the clubhouse as Jeff Heinrich hit a leadoff homer, his fourth of the year. Somebody ran over to McCullough and said, "Get off the couch!" He grabbed his cleats and began warming up shortly before Goodwin's blast — his fourth home run in the last six games.
After starter Griffin Hassall pitched into the sixth inning, the K-State bullpen combined to keep the Longhorns scoreless on just two hits over the game's final 3 2/3 innings. Tyson Neighbors kept the score at 5-1. McCullough entered when Texas managed two baserunners with just one out in the eighth. McCullough induced an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play and went onto retire all four he faced, earning his first career save.
The mighty Longhorns went from appearing businesslike to suddenly fraying and finally unwinding like a withered baseball on its last string.
With Metallica's "Enter Sandman" booming across the stadium sound system at 8:48 p.m. as McCullough opened the ninth inning on the mound, the crowd rose to its feet. One out. Two outs.
Finally, Texas right fielder Murphy Stehly came to the plate. The crowd clapped in unison, over and over, as Stehly met his fate and McCullough, in just his second career relief appearance, struck him out to end one of the more improbable comebacks against a Top 10 team in K-State history.
"I was going to attack him and see if my best stuff could beat him," McCullough said, "and it did."
K-State scored the final seven runs of the game to improve to 12-3 at home this season. K-State improved to 10-23 at home against Texas and the teams have split the last 10 matchups overall heading into Friday's 6 p.m. contest, which could draw a sellout.
"There's just something about (Tointon) that we can beat anybody whenever and however we want a lot of times, but I couldn't tell you what it is, though," McCullough said. "Maybe it's the Tointon wind."
The cold front that rested above the K-State dugout swept sides and Texas coaches and players, bundled up in the nighttime air, could only watch as the Wildcats celebrated on the field.
There were ample heroes — Phillips, Neighbors, Heinrich, McCullough and Goodwin, to name a few — who embraced immediately following the big victory.
"We could've given out a lot of game balls today," Hughes said. "Any way you can win a game Friday you do it."
It's one win, yes, but it was an important one.
When it comes to stirring comebacks against top-10 opponents, it might be one of the best.
Kansas State sophomore shortstop Nick Goodwin, who's been around baseball since diapers, and who last month used his first home run of the season to quiet Nebraska's entire dugout, could never had envisioned what was in store for him Thursday night.
With a mighty swing, the Overland Park, Kansas, native sent a three-run homer over the left-center field wall for a go-ahead 8-5 score in the seventh inning against No. 7 Texas, capping what is believed to be one of the greatest comeback victories over a top-10 opponent in school history.
Goodwin had heard many timeworn stories about great baseball moments — father, David, was a Kansas City Royal, and his uncle, Mark, played at K-State in the 1980s and signed with the Baltimore Orioles — but up until the series opener against the Longhorns contended that his first-ever college baseball game against Oregon State was his favorite personal experience at a ballpark.
All that changed as the ball left Goodwin's bat at breakneck speed, climbing and climbing, as the crowd of 1,852 slowly rose to its feet at Tointon Family Stadium in the seventh inning. K-State coaches, players and fans have needed something to cheer about during the toughest opening stretch by a team in the 26-year history of the Big 12 Conference. They'd been close, and they'd fallen short time and time again.
So, there was something mystical about how Goodwin watched the ball soar, then rounded the bases, and how the field lights flickered, and high-energy music blared, and how "HOME RUN" gleamed across the videoboard, and how K-State head coach Pete Hughes clapped along the third base line, and how fans danced, and how the backs of burnt orange coaches and players bundled in jackets grew colder with each passing second.Goodness 👀#KStateBSB pic.twitter.com/Cp8BIOYyzL
— K-State Baseball (@KStateBSB) April 15, 2022
Goodwin, who didn't like how Nebraska chirped a month ago, delivered a stinging blow that annually rings in harmony among the K-State teams that duel with Texas on the gridiron and basketball court.
"No one here," Goodwin said, "likes the Longhorns."
"That group of guys came in and were pretty cocky and expected to win all three of these games," Goodwin continued. "This feels really good."
It's one win, yes, but it was one the Wildcats, 16-16 overall and 2-8 in the Big 12, badly needed. They'd been through so much, going through the grinder at No. 19 TCU, then against No. 6 Oklahoma State, then at No. 4 Texas Tech. No Big 12 team ever slogged through so much nationally ranked muck to finally find daylight at the other side.
"I like to see kids who work their butts off get the result once in a while, because I'm sick of talking about, 'stick with the process, stick with the process,'" Hughes said. "We all want to get paid back. You get paid back by winning. That was great for our kids. It puts us in a good situation. We've got to keep playing better and use this as momentum to turn this around."
Victorious first baseman Dylan Phillips, the all-time home run leader in K-State history who belted two homers — No. 41 and No. 42 — against the Longhorns, finally allowed a grin to creep upon his face late Thursday night as he sat down for the first time following the win.
"Let's make this a daily thing," Phillips said, finally exhaling.
Texas, 25-11 and 5-5, had won 14 of the last 20 against K-State and rode a five-game winning streak into Manhattan. The Longhorns led the Big 12 with a .320 batting average and 57 home runs, while the pitching staff led the league with a 3.47 ERA and six shutouts. Defensively, the Longhorns owned a .983 fielding percentage, which ranked seventh in the nation.
For five innings, it appeared that K-State was in for a long night. The crowd groaned as Dylan Campbell, Douglas Hodo III and Silas Ardoin each homered, and Texas took a 5-1 lead into the sixth inning. Sophomore left-hander Pete Hansen fanned eight of the first 10 batters he faced and appeared to be headed to an 18-1 all-time record as a starter — "The kid is awesome, and his pitch-ability is through the roof," Hughes said — before the Wildcats' bats suddenly heated up.
Momentum swung faster than a restaurant door on taco night and Hansen, the reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, crumpled like never before in his celebrated career. He gave up a career-high six earned runs on eight hits, seven coming over his last 3 1/3 innings. Which left reliever Jared Southard to inherit runners on the corners in the seventh. That's when Goodwin stepped to the plate, and his heroics arrived with a story that he'll tell family about for years to come.
His home run opportunity almost didn't arrive.
Hughes originally called for Goodwin to bunt on the second pitch — "Why don't you go after the first pitch and the second pitch I think I want a safety squeeze," Hughes recalled — before Goodwin fouled the first-pitch hanging slider straight backward on an unbelievable swing. That caused Hughes to change the call — "I just loved his swing, and I knew he was on it," Hughes said — which allowed Goodwin to find his groove.
Next pitch? Fastball.
Gone.
"I was sitting on the fastball looking for a pitch I could hit to the outfield and drive in a run," Goodwin said, "and I just ended up hitting it really well."
Cue the flickering lights and dance music.
"Off the bat, that was a no-doubter," Phillips said. "I just walked a little bit to see how far he hit it."
Connor McCullough saw the ball leave the stadium, too. McCullough, a sophomore right-hander who is slated to start in Saturday's series finale, was busy in the bullpen. Moments prior, McCullough had been scribbling his scouting report while occupying a couch in the clubhouse as Jeff Heinrich hit a leadoff homer, his fourth of the year. Somebody ran over to McCullough and said, "Get off the couch!" He grabbed his cleats and began warming up shortly before Goodwin's blast — his fourth home run in the last six games.
After starter Griffin Hassall pitched into the sixth inning, the K-State bullpen combined to keep the Longhorns scoreless on just two hits over the game's final 3 2/3 innings. Tyson Neighbors kept the score at 5-1. McCullough entered when Texas managed two baserunners with just one out in the eighth. McCullough induced an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play and went onto retire all four he faced, earning his first career save.
The mighty Longhorns went from appearing businesslike to suddenly fraying and finally unwinding like a withered baseball on its last string.
With Metallica's "Enter Sandman" booming across the stadium sound system at 8:48 p.m. as McCullough opened the ninth inning on the mound, the crowd rose to its feet. One out. Two outs.
Finally, Texas right fielder Murphy Stehly came to the plate. The crowd clapped in unison, over and over, as Stehly met his fate and McCullough, in just his second career relief appearance, struck him out to end one of the more improbable comebacks against a Top 10 team in K-State history.
"I was going to attack him and see if my best stuff could beat him," McCullough said, "and it did."
K-State scored the final seven runs of the game to improve to 12-3 at home this season. K-State improved to 10-23 at home against Texas and the teams have split the last 10 matchups overall heading into Friday's 6 p.m. contest, which could draw a sellout.
"There's just something about (Tointon) that we can beat anybody whenever and however we want a lot of times, but I couldn't tell you what it is, though," McCullough said. "Maybe it's the Tointon wind."
The cold front that rested above the K-State dugout swept sides and Texas coaches and players, bundled up in the nighttime air, could only watch as the Wildcats celebrated on the field.
There were ample heroes — Phillips, Neighbors, Heinrich, McCullough and Goodwin, to name a few — who embraced immediately following the big victory.
"We could've given out a lot of game balls today," Hughes said. "Any way you can win a game Friday you do it."
It's one win, yes, but it was an important one.
When it comes to stirring comebacks against top-10 opponents, it might be one of the best.
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