Kansas State University Athletics
Thursday, May 19
Morgantown, W.Va.
5:30 p.m.
Kansas State University
at
West Virginia
K-State Heads into Final Big 12 Weekend in Morgantown
May 18, 2022 | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – K-State finishes a four-game east coast swing and heads into its final Big 12 series at West Virginia, as the three-game set gets started Thursday at 5:30 p.m. CT at Monongalia County Ballpark.
The Wildcats opened their road trip Tuesday night at No. 3 Virginia Tech, with the Hokies coming away with an 8-2 victory. Dominic Johnson lifted a two-run homer, but VT scored seven runs over the game's first four innings behind three home runs.
K-State sits in seventh place in the Big 12 standings after its home series win against Baylor last weekend. West Virginia is currently three games ahead of the Wildcats in the standings, as both teams have clinched berths in this year's Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, which begins Wednesday, May 25.
The Cats make their first trek to Morgantown since the 2018 season. A season ago, K-State took two of three games against the Mountaineers at Tointon Family Stadium. WVU owns a 13-11 edge in the all-time series.
GAME #52
K-STATE (27-24, 8-13 BIG 12) at WEST VIRGINIA (30-20, 11-10 BIG 12)
Thursday, May 19 // 5:30 p.m. CT // Monongalia County Ballpark (3,500) // Morgantown, W.Va.
Projected Starters: RHP Blake Adams (5-5, 4.54 ERA) vs. RHP Jacob Watters (2-6, 5.85 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // ESPN app
Radio: News Radio KMAN // Matt Walters, Christopher Brown
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/Watch // 1350KMAN.com
Live Stats
GAME #53
K-STATE (27-24, 8-13 BIG 12) at WEST VIRGINIA (30-20, 11-10 BIG 12)
Friday, May 20 // 5:30 p.m. CT // Monongalia County Ballpark (3,500) // Morgantown, W.Va.
Projected Starters: RHP German Fajardo (4-1, 3.11 ERA) vs. LHP Ben Hampton (7-4, 4.65 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // ESPN app
Radio: News Radio KMAN // Matt Walters, Christopher Brown
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/Watch // 1350KMAN.com
Live Stats
GAME #54
K-STATE (27-24, 8-13 BIG 12) at WEST VIRGINIA (30-20, 11-10 BIG 12)
Saturday, May 21 // 11 a.m. CT // Monongalia County Ballpark (3,500) // Morgantown, W.Va.
Projected Starters: TBA vs. TBA
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // ESPN app
Radio: News Radio KMAN // Matt Walters, Christopher Brown
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/Watch // 1350KMAN.com
Live Stats
A LOOK AT K-STATE
K-State concludes a four-game east coast road swing with its final Big 12 series at West Virginia, as the three-game sets gets underway Thursday at Monongalia County Ballpark ... The Wildcats fell to No. 3 Virginia Tech Tuesday night 8-2, as the Hokies scored seven runs in the first four innings behind three home runs ... Dominic Johnson hit a two-run home run for the Cats' only runs and extra-base hit ... K-State has won six of nine games in the month of May after taking two of three games against Baylor in their final home series of the season ... K-State bounced back from a 4-2 setback in the series opener to win the series with a 7-5 win Saturday and a Sunday rubber game victory by the same score ... Trailing 5-1 after seven innings in the finale, Nick Goodwin launched an opposite-field grand slam in the eighth inning to give the Cats a 6-5 lead ... Cash Rugely added a pinch-hit solo homer later in the inning to cap a six-run eighth ... The Wildcat offense had managed just one run on three hits through seven innings before breaking through against the BU bullpen, tallying four hits in the eighth inning alone ... Justin Mitchell broke a 5-5 tie in the seventh inning Saturday, roping a two-out, two-RBI single with two strikes to even the series ... K-State held a 5-0 lead after the second inning, only to see the Bears claw back and tie the game in the fifth ... Dylan Phillips recorded back-to-back saves to preserve the Cats' first series victory over Baylor since 2017 ... In the three-game series, the K-State bullpen allowed one earned run over 13 1/3 innings for a 0.68 ERA ... Blake Corsentino and Ty Ruhl earned the victories out of the pen Saturday and Sunday, respectively ... Corsentino appeared twice in the weekend series and totaled four scoreless innings while Ruhl logged a career-high five innings in Sunday's contest ... As an offense, K-State hit .300 in the series and got home runs from Goodwin, Mitchell, Phillips and Rugely ... With the series win, the Wildcats clinched a bid into this year's Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas ... K-State now sits in seventh place in the Big 12 standings, owning a two-game edge over eighth-place Baylor.
SCOUTING WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia (30-20, 11-10 Big 12) sits three games ahead of K-State in the Big 12 standings with three conference games to play ... The Mountaineers are 14-6 at home this season and 5-4 in league games at Monongalia County Ballpark ... WVU's offense is led by McGwire Holbrook and his .333 batting average while Austin Davis is second at .332 ... Ben Abernathy ranks fourth in the Big 12 in on-base percentage at .480 ... Grant Hussey has a team-high nine home runs and Victor Scott II is the RBI leader with 44 ... As a team, the Mountaineers are second in the country with 144 stolen bases - 26 more than any team in the league (Oklahoma) ... On the mound, WVU has a 5.19 team ERA to go with 455 strikeouts, both of which rank in the top five in the Big 12 ... Ben Hampton has logged 71 2/3 innings over 13 starts (7-4), boasting a 4.65 ERA and 77 strikeouts.
INSIDE THE SERIES
West Virginia holds a 13-11 edge in the all-time series, which began when the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 prior to the 2013 season ... K-State is 3-6 against WVU in Morgantown, dropping two of three games in the last road series in 2018 ... The Wildcats won the last two games of their weekend series at Tointon Family Stadium a season ago, while the teams have split the last 10 in the series overall ... The Cats only series win in Morgantown came in 2016 and have never swept a road series ... Head coach Pete Hughes is 3-3 in his K-State career against the Mountaineers.
BOMBS ARE BACK
K-State ranks second in the Big 12 and 21st nationally with 79 home runs this season, with 64 coming over its last 35 games ... K-State has homered in seven straight games and in 14 of the last 16 games, with multiple homers in 10 of those outings ... The Wildcat offense managed just one homer over the season's first five games and turned in seven over their first 10 games ... Twenty-four times the Cats have hit multiple home runs, including 16 of their last 26 contests ... K-State has 32 home runs over its last 16 games and 51 in its last 27 games ... In total, 14 different players have hit at least one home run this season ... A season ago, K-State launched a single-season program record 89 bombs while its 79 home runs this season are already second-most in any season in program history ... Twenty-six of K-State's 78 home runs have been game-tying or go-ahead home runs, led by five go-ahead home runs by Nick Goodwin (four each from Dominic Johnson and Dylan Phillips) ... Goodwin has hit a go-ahead homer in each of the last two weekend rubber games in the seventh inning or later - including his go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning against Baylor Sunday ... Home runs account for 127 of the 295 runs batted in on the season (43 percent), including seven of 16 RBI over three games against the Bears.
HOME COOKIN'
K-State finished its home schedule with a record of 21-7, marking the second straight season in which the Cats have reached the 20-win plateau at home ... It was the first time K-State has put together consecutive 20-win home seasons since three straight from 2009-11 ... Over the last two seasons, K-State is 45-14 (.763) - good for the third-best win total and home winning percentage in the Big 12 ... At home, the Wildcat offense hit .303 while slugging .566 with 60 home runs ... K-State averaged 6.9 runs a game on 10.2 hits at Tointon Family Stadium ... Conversely, the Cats are hitting .263 and slugging .412 in games away from home, averaging 5.5 runs per game and 9.0 hits a game ... The Wildcat bullpen boasted a 3.83 ERA at home, striking out 128 compared to 60 walks ... In road and neutral contest, K-State relievers have a combined ERA of 8.77 with 107 strikeouts and 81 walks ... K-State homered in 24 of 28 home games while 60 of its 78 home runs have come at Tointon Family Stadium ... The Cats outscored teams 193-131 in 28 home games with a +54 run differential (80-26) from the seventh inning on ... Additionally, K-State outscored its opponents 46-5 in the seventh and eighth innings over its last 14 home games ... Jeff Heinrich leads the Wildcats in hitting at home at .375 while Dominic Johnson is next at .349 ... Dylan Phillips posted a team-high 10 homers at home while Heinrich added nine.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE ANIMAL STYLE
Jeff Heinrich and Dominic Johnson joined the 10-homer club last weekend, as Johnson now sits at 11 home runs while Heinrich has 10 to go with Dylan Phillips' team-leading 13 bombs ... A season ago, five Wildcats recorded 10 or more homers, led by 16 from Phillips ... Phillips is just the second Wildcat to register three seasons with 10 or more home runs, joining Pat Maloney who did it in three straight seasons from 2001-03 ... Johnson is one of three players in the Big 12 to reach double digits in both home runs and stolen bases (11) ... Phillips needs just two more stolen bases to join the 10 homers-10 steals club... Additionally, Phillips and Oklahoma State's Nolan McLean are the only players in the conference to have 10+ home runs along with recording multiple saves on the mound.
NUMBER NUGGETS
K-State has a -1 run differential through 51 games this season after an 8-2 setback at Virginia Tech Tuesday ... The Wildcats have outscored opponents 47-27 in the eighth inning alone and 114-78 from the seventh inning on, outscoring Baylor 9-0 after the sixth inning ... The Cats are 23-13 when hitting a home run and 17-7 when hitting multiple homers ... K-State has won 11 of 14 games in which it has not committed an error while going 6-13 when committing multiple errors ... When holding opponents to five or fewer runs, the Wildcats are 22-6 ... Conversely, K-State has a record of 5-15 when scoring five or fewer runs in a game and is 22-8 when scoring at least six runs ... K-State is 9-12 in games decided by two runs or less and eight of its last nine games have been decided by three runs or less - seven of which have been two-run contests ... K-State is hitting .300 on the season with runners in scoring position and .278 with two outs and 101 two-out RBI ... Last season, the Cats managed a .271 average with runners in scoring position while hitting .252 with two outs.
The Wildcats opened their road trip Tuesday night at No. 3 Virginia Tech, with the Hokies coming away with an 8-2 victory. Dominic Johnson lifted a two-run homer, but VT scored seven runs over the game's first four innings behind three home runs.
K-State sits in seventh place in the Big 12 standings after its home series win against Baylor last weekend. West Virginia is currently three games ahead of the Wildcats in the standings, as both teams have clinched berths in this year's Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, which begins Wednesday, May 25.
The Cats make their first trek to Morgantown since the 2018 season. A season ago, K-State took two of three games against the Mountaineers at Tointon Family Stadium. WVU owns a 13-11 edge in the all-time series.
GAME #52
K-STATE (27-24, 8-13 BIG 12) at WEST VIRGINIA (30-20, 11-10 BIG 12)
Thursday, May 19 // 5:30 p.m. CT // Monongalia County Ballpark (3,500) // Morgantown, W.Va.
Projected Starters: RHP Blake Adams (5-5, 4.54 ERA) vs. RHP Jacob Watters (2-6, 5.85 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // ESPN app
Radio: News Radio KMAN // Matt Walters, Christopher Brown
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/Watch // 1350KMAN.com
Live Stats
GAME #53
K-STATE (27-24, 8-13 BIG 12) at WEST VIRGINIA (30-20, 11-10 BIG 12)
Friday, May 20 // 5:30 p.m. CT // Monongalia County Ballpark (3,500) // Morgantown, W.Va.
Projected Starters: RHP German Fajardo (4-1, 3.11 ERA) vs. LHP Ben Hampton (7-4, 4.65 ERA)
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // ESPN app
Radio: News Radio KMAN // Matt Walters, Christopher Brown
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/Watch // 1350KMAN.com
Live Stats
GAME #54
K-STATE (27-24, 8-13 BIG 12) at WEST VIRGINIA (30-20, 11-10 BIG 12)
Saturday, May 21 // 11 a.m. CT // Monongalia County Ballpark (3,500) // Morgantown, W.Va.
Projected Starters: TBA vs. TBA
Watch: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ // ESPN app
Radio: News Radio KMAN // Matt Walters, Christopher Brown
Listen Online: K-StateSports.com/Watch // 1350KMAN.com
Live Stats
A LOOK AT K-STATE
K-State concludes a four-game east coast road swing with its final Big 12 series at West Virginia, as the three-game sets gets underway Thursday at Monongalia County Ballpark ... The Wildcats fell to No. 3 Virginia Tech Tuesday night 8-2, as the Hokies scored seven runs in the first four innings behind three home runs ... Dominic Johnson hit a two-run home run for the Cats' only runs and extra-base hit ... K-State has won six of nine games in the month of May after taking two of three games against Baylor in their final home series of the season ... K-State bounced back from a 4-2 setback in the series opener to win the series with a 7-5 win Saturday and a Sunday rubber game victory by the same score ... Trailing 5-1 after seven innings in the finale, Nick Goodwin launched an opposite-field grand slam in the eighth inning to give the Cats a 6-5 lead ... Cash Rugely added a pinch-hit solo homer later in the inning to cap a six-run eighth ... The Wildcat offense had managed just one run on three hits through seven innings before breaking through against the BU bullpen, tallying four hits in the eighth inning alone ... Justin Mitchell broke a 5-5 tie in the seventh inning Saturday, roping a two-out, two-RBI single with two strikes to even the series ... K-State held a 5-0 lead after the second inning, only to see the Bears claw back and tie the game in the fifth ... Dylan Phillips recorded back-to-back saves to preserve the Cats' first series victory over Baylor since 2017 ... In the three-game series, the K-State bullpen allowed one earned run over 13 1/3 innings for a 0.68 ERA ... Blake Corsentino and Ty Ruhl earned the victories out of the pen Saturday and Sunday, respectively ... Corsentino appeared twice in the weekend series and totaled four scoreless innings while Ruhl logged a career-high five innings in Sunday's contest ... As an offense, K-State hit .300 in the series and got home runs from Goodwin, Mitchell, Phillips and Rugely ... With the series win, the Wildcats clinched a bid into this year's Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas ... K-State now sits in seventh place in the Big 12 standings, owning a two-game edge over eighth-place Baylor.
SCOUTING WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia (30-20, 11-10 Big 12) sits three games ahead of K-State in the Big 12 standings with three conference games to play ... The Mountaineers are 14-6 at home this season and 5-4 in league games at Monongalia County Ballpark ... WVU's offense is led by McGwire Holbrook and his .333 batting average while Austin Davis is second at .332 ... Ben Abernathy ranks fourth in the Big 12 in on-base percentage at .480 ... Grant Hussey has a team-high nine home runs and Victor Scott II is the RBI leader with 44 ... As a team, the Mountaineers are second in the country with 144 stolen bases - 26 more than any team in the league (Oklahoma) ... On the mound, WVU has a 5.19 team ERA to go with 455 strikeouts, both of which rank in the top five in the Big 12 ... Ben Hampton has logged 71 2/3 innings over 13 starts (7-4), boasting a 4.65 ERA and 77 strikeouts.
INSIDE THE SERIES
West Virginia holds a 13-11 edge in the all-time series, which began when the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 prior to the 2013 season ... K-State is 3-6 against WVU in Morgantown, dropping two of three games in the last road series in 2018 ... The Wildcats won the last two games of their weekend series at Tointon Family Stadium a season ago, while the teams have split the last 10 in the series overall ... The Cats only series win in Morgantown came in 2016 and have never swept a road series ... Head coach Pete Hughes is 3-3 in his K-State career against the Mountaineers.
BOMBS ARE BACK
K-State ranks second in the Big 12 and 21st nationally with 79 home runs this season, with 64 coming over its last 35 games ... K-State has homered in seven straight games and in 14 of the last 16 games, with multiple homers in 10 of those outings ... The Wildcat offense managed just one homer over the season's first five games and turned in seven over their first 10 games ... Twenty-four times the Cats have hit multiple home runs, including 16 of their last 26 contests ... K-State has 32 home runs over its last 16 games and 51 in its last 27 games ... In total, 14 different players have hit at least one home run this season ... A season ago, K-State launched a single-season program record 89 bombs while its 79 home runs this season are already second-most in any season in program history ... Twenty-six of K-State's 78 home runs have been game-tying or go-ahead home runs, led by five go-ahead home runs by Nick Goodwin (four each from Dominic Johnson and Dylan Phillips) ... Goodwin has hit a go-ahead homer in each of the last two weekend rubber games in the seventh inning or later - including his go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning against Baylor Sunday ... Home runs account for 127 of the 295 runs batted in on the season (43 percent), including seven of 16 RBI over three games against the Bears.
HOME COOKIN'
K-State finished its home schedule with a record of 21-7, marking the second straight season in which the Cats have reached the 20-win plateau at home ... It was the first time K-State has put together consecutive 20-win home seasons since three straight from 2009-11 ... Over the last two seasons, K-State is 45-14 (.763) - good for the third-best win total and home winning percentage in the Big 12 ... At home, the Wildcat offense hit .303 while slugging .566 with 60 home runs ... K-State averaged 6.9 runs a game on 10.2 hits at Tointon Family Stadium ... Conversely, the Cats are hitting .263 and slugging .412 in games away from home, averaging 5.5 runs per game and 9.0 hits a game ... The Wildcat bullpen boasted a 3.83 ERA at home, striking out 128 compared to 60 walks ... In road and neutral contest, K-State relievers have a combined ERA of 8.77 with 107 strikeouts and 81 walks ... K-State homered in 24 of 28 home games while 60 of its 78 home runs have come at Tointon Family Stadium ... The Cats outscored teams 193-131 in 28 home games with a +54 run differential (80-26) from the seventh inning on ... Additionally, K-State outscored its opponents 46-5 in the seventh and eighth innings over its last 14 home games ... Jeff Heinrich leads the Wildcats in hitting at home at .375 while Dominic Johnson is next at .349 ... Dylan Phillips posted a team-high 10 homers at home while Heinrich added nine.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE ANIMAL STYLE
Jeff Heinrich and Dominic Johnson joined the 10-homer club last weekend, as Johnson now sits at 11 home runs while Heinrich has 10 to go with Dylan Phillips' team-leading 13 bombs ... A season ago, five Wildcats recorded 10 or more homers, led by 16 from Phillips ... Phillips is just the second Wildcat to register three seasons with 10 or more home runs, joining Pat Maloney who did it in three straight seasons from 2001-03 ... Johnson is one of three players in the Big 12 to reach double digits in both home runs and stolen bases (11) ... Phillips needs just two more stolen bases to join the 10 homers-10 steals club... Additionally, Phillips and Oklahoma State's Nolan McLean are the only players in the conference to have 10+ home runs along with recording multiple saves on the mound.
NUMBER NUGGETS
K-State has a -1 run differential through 51 games this season after an 8-2 setback at Virginia Tech Tuesday ... The Wildcats have outscored opponents 47-27 in the eighth inning alone and 114-78 from the seventh inning on, outscoring Baylor 9-0 after the sixth inning ... The Cats are 23-13 when hitting a home run and 17-7 when hitting multiple homers ... K-State has won 11 of 14 games in which it has not committed an error while going 6-13 when committing multiple errors ... When holding opponents to five or fewer runs, the Wildcats are 22-6 ... Conversely, K-State has a record of 5-15 when scoring five or fewer runs in a game and is 22-8 when scoring at least six runs ... K-State is 9-12 in games decided by two runs or less and eight of its last nine games have been decided by three runs or less - seven of which have been two-run contests ... K-State is hitting .300 on the season with runners in scoring position and .278 with two outs and 101 two-out RBI ... Last season, the Cats managed a .271 average with runners in scoring position while hitting .252 with two outs.
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