Motivation at Every Turn
Feb 08, 2024 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Here we are, and Kansas State head coach Pete Hughes is saying, "We're here to be the best in college baseball," and All-American pitcher Tyson Neighbors is talking about how, "We want to put ourselves on the map as a national program," and All-American short stop Kaelen Culpepper is saying, "Going someplace else was never on my mind," and second baseman Brady Day, who was drafted and returned to the Wildcats, is saying, "We wanted to be in the postseason last year and we were cut short, and that definitely played a factor in me coming back."
Yes, motivation is everywhere at Tointon Family Stadium. "Omaha" — site of the College World Series — remains plastered on the hallway that heads toward Hughes' corner office, and the stadium is empty for now, yet the 60-degree temperatures, which allow the Wildcats to practice outside, will soon turn into hot, steamy games under the lights, when there are $1 hot dog nights, the music blares, and sold-out crowds cheer for No. 24 K-State, as their players hit home runs and Neighbors retires batters faster than Eminem spits lyrics.
There they sit, Culpepper and Day and Wichita State transfer Chuck Ingram and Hughes and Neighbors and right-hander Ty Ruhl and left-hander Owen Boerema, wearing purple polos, shoulder-to-shoulder at K-State Baseball Media Day, and behind a table draped in a purple and gray cloth, and in front of a purple backdrop bearing white Powercats, and one by one the players and their head coach talk about winning and culture and championships.
"At the forefront of what we're doing is putting our program in the best situation to play in the national tournament and get in that race to Omaha," Hughes says. "Excited to go forward with these kids. Couldn't be more excited about a season and what we have in the clubhouse and our ability to get our program to the next level."
K-State returns 18 letterwinners, five position starters, and seven pitchers from a squad that went 35-24 overall and 13-11 in the Big 12 Conference a year ago, barely missing out on a NCAA Regional by a bizarre decision by the selection committee.
This K-State team has at least one baseball expert in its corner. Kendall Rogers, who is managing editor of D1Baseball, which put K-State at No. 24 in its preseason rankings, uses the word "dangerous" to describe the Wildcats in 2024.
"The biggest thing for me in looking at K-State on paper is the personnel and the fact that this is a club that is very talented with a chip on its shoulder," Rogers says. "That's extremely dangerous. It's one thing to be a team with a chip on its shoulder and to have so-so talent, and it's another to be a talented team. Brady Day is a really exciting spark-plug player. Kaelen Culpepper, we all saw flashes of his brilliance last year, and he's going to have a monster year. Chuck Ingram is a really nice addition from the transfer portal. Then you look at Tyson Neighbors, a slam-dunk for me as an All-American and Preseason Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, and he's their assassin.
"It's a great mix of them feeling disrespected and having the talent to do something about it. That's a dangerous combo."
Hughes has guided his teams to a .500 record or better in 23 of 26 seasons. He has coached 84 players who've been taken in the MLB Draft, including 21 who've been selected in the first 10 rounds. That includes Nick Goodwin, who was taken in the seventh round by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2023 MLB Draft.
Three of Hughes' five seasons at K-State have featured a spot in the Big 12 Championship semifinals. His 133-116 (.534) record at K-State includes last season's 35-24 mark, its highest win total since posting 45 in 2013, and that includes a program-record 14 road victories.
This is the first time in Hughes' stint that K-State has earned a national preseason ranking.
"We all came here for postseason rankings," Hughes says. "It's nice for our kids to get the attention and for our program to get the attention finally at a national level, but it's the postseason rankings that we're most interested in."
Hughes figures that in order to appease the selection committee this year, to leave absolutely no doubt that K-State belongs in a NCAA Regional, the Wildcats need to beat high-quality RPI competition on the road. K-State opens the season competing against California, Boston College and Georgetown in the MLB Desert Invitational in Scottsdale, Arizona, on February 16-18. Two days later, the Wildcats face Arizona State in Phoenix. In March, the Wildcats travel to Tennessee and Clemson for back-to-back midweek games. In April, the Wildcats travel to UConn and Northeastern for midweek contests.
"We have to be tough enough to handle the road, and to handle the road midweek," Hughes says. "We all know it. It's not going to be a surprise for us. We have 11 exceptionally tough games, and how we make out in those 11 games will determine where we end up at the end of the season."
The end seems so far away and the beginning of the Road to Omaha is here, a grand opportunity that kept the Wildcats' top talent in the Little Apple.
"Everyone wanted a postseason run (last year)," Day says. "We just wanted a chance to be in the postseason and see what we could do. We were cut short. It definitely played a factor in me coming back and a lot of guys coming back. It speaks a lot to the program and the culture that we have. We're looking to go farther than we did last year."
K-State was one of just three teams in the nation to walk over 300 times, hit over 75 home runs and steal over 100 bases. The Wildcats batted .270, averaged just under seven runs per game, and hit 77 home runs. The Wildcats' 340 walks marked their most since 1997.
K-State finished third in school history in home runs (77), fifth in stolen bases (114), third in walks (340), fourth in sacrifice flies (34) and ninth in RBI (379).
Culpepper, who is switching from third base to his home at shortstop this season, produced an impressive slash line of .325/.423/.576 with eight doubles, 10 home runs, 41 RBI and 16 walks. The third player in school history to be selected and invited to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Training Camp, Culpepper was the top slugger for Team USA with a team-leading .471 batting average and a .853 slugging percentage, with two triples, three home runs and seven RBI.
Culpepper, a junior who is named a Preseason All-American, is also projected to be the No. 28 overall selection in the 2024 MLB Draft.
"I'm comfortable being here, and I want to make my own mark here," Culpepper says. "Going somewhere else was never on my mind. Being in a category or in the same sentence of K-State greats is great, but I'd like to leave my own mark and have my own identity."
The pitching staff last season finished just second to Oklahoma State with a 2.36 strikeout-to-walk ratio and fifth in the Big 12 with a 5.30 ERA. The Wildcats struck out 507 batters while issuing 215 walks, compared to their 5.84 ERA and 280 walks in 2022. K-State issued a league-low 215 walks and 3.82 walks per nine innings.
Boerema, named one of the nation's top-50 starting pitchers by D1Baseball, earned All-Big 12 Second Team accolades in his first season, striking out 95 batters, which ranked fifth in the league. Ruhl made a team-leading 26 appearances, including two starts, and he struck out 51 and walked 22 while opponents hit .267 against him last season. Neighbors became just the second player in school history to earn Consensus All-America honors behind a league-best 11 saves to go along with a 1.85 ERA. He broke the program's TrackMan-era pitching velocity record at 99-mph in the series-opening win against No. 14 Texas Tech on April 28.
Neighbors, a junior, is the third player in school history to earn four Preseason All-American honors in the same season alongside former right-hander Jordan Wicks (2021) and infielder Ross Kivett (2014).
"The culture at K-State is unmatched," Neighbors says. "Just hearing stories from around the country at other programs, there are guys who barely have conversations with their head coach. I feel like we know each other on the deepest of levels. I feel comfortable here and know we're the underdog, and we love that mentality. We want to put ourselves on the map as a national program. That's been my goal and our team's goal since day one and we plan to carry that out."
The Wildcats will get some help with the addition of Ingram, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound native of Belton, Missouri, and a senior transfer from Wichita State. Ingram, an outfielder who was named a Top Impact Transfer by D1Baseball (No. 55), played in 141 games with 132 starts with the Shockers. He slashed .362/.437/.579 with 80 hits and 41 RBI last season, and brings 36 career doubles, six triples and 26 homers to K-State.
"I always heard great things about this program," Ingram says. "One of my good friends is Nick Goodwin, and he always spoke very highly about Coach Hughes and the staff. K-State was one of the first schools to reach out to me, and I was very happy because K-State was definitely No. 1 on my list. I knew this place was awesome."
Yes, K-State is awesome, and its baseball team appears to be pretty awesome as well, and optimism appears to be at an all-time high under Hughes, and plenty of stories will unfurl throughout the season. Hughes loves his depth. He loves the pitching. He loves the batting. He loves his coaching staff.
"We have a lot of kids in this room that decided to come back and be a part of this season specifically to finish some unfinished business and get this school, program and community to a different level in college baseball," Hughes says. "The weather certainly has cooperated with us, and our preparation before we head out next week and jump on the road to Omaha."
Count Rogers of D1Baseball among those anxious to see the Wildcats progress down the road in what could be one of the more memorable seasons in school history.
"It's pretty clear for me," Rogers says. "I love this club offensively, and they're going to really hit. The biggest thing for me is the starting rotation. If they can get the game to Neighbors at the end, he's going to throw two or three innings because he's too valuable. I'll look at arms that can get six or seven innings and they'll be in great shape.
"I'll say this about K-State, if the weekend rotation pans out, I don't think this is a top-25 team, this is a top-10 or top-12 team."
Here we are, and Kansas State head coach Pete Hughes is saying, "We're here to be the best in college baseball," and All-American pitcher Tyson Neighbors is talking about how, "We want to put ourselves on the map as a national program," and All-American short stop Kaelen Culpepper is saying, "Going someplace else was never on my mind," and second baseman Brady Day, who was drafted and returned to the Wildcats, is saying, "We wanted to be in the postseason last year and we were cut short, and that definitely played a factor in me coming back."
Yes, motivation is everywhere at Tointon Family Stadium. "Omaha" — site of the College World Series — remains plastered on the hallway that heads toward Hughes' corner office, and the stadium is empty for now, yet the 60-degree temperatures, which allow the Wildcats to practice outside, will soon turn into hot, steamy games under the lights, when there are $1 hot dog nights, the music blares, and sold-out crowds cheer for No. 24 K-State, as their players hit home runs and Neighbors retires batters faster than Eminem spits lyrics.
There they sit, Culpepper and Day and Wichita State transfer Chuck Ingram and Hughes and Neighbors and right-hander Ty Ruhl and left-hander Owen Boerema, wearing purple polos, shoulder-to-shoulder at K-State Baseball Media Day, and behind a table draped in a purple and gray cloth, and in front of a purple backdrop bearing white Powercats, and one by one the players and their head coach talk about winning and culture and championships.
"At the forefront of what we're doing is putting our program in the best situation to play in the national tournament and get in that race to Omaha," Hughes says. "Excited to go forward with these kids. Couldn't be more excited about a season and what we have in the clubhouse and our ability to get our program to the next level."
K-State returns 18 letterwinners, five position starters, and seven pitchers from a squad that went 35-24 overall and 13-11 in the Big 12 Conference a year ago, barely missing out on a NCAA Regional by a bizarre decision by the selection committee.
This K-State team has at least one baseball expert in its corner. Kendall Rogers, who is managing editor of D1Baseball, which put K-State at No. 24 in its preseason rankings, uses the word "dangerous" to describe the Wildcats in 2024.
"The biggest thing for me in looking at K-State on paper is the personnel and the fact that this is a club that is very talented with a chip on its shoulder," Rogers says. "That's extremely dangerous. It's one thing to be a team with a chip on its shoulder and to have so-so talent, and it's another to be a talented team. Brady Day is a really exciting spark-plug player. Kaelen Culpepper, we all saw flashes of his brilliance last year, and he's going to have a monster year. Chuck Ingram is a really nice addition from the transfer portal. Then you look at Tyson Neighbors, a slam-dunk for me as an All-American and Preseason Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, and he's their assassin.
"It's a great mix of them feeling disrespected and having the talent to do something about it. That's a dangerous combo."
Hughes has guided his teams to a .500 record or better in 23 of 26 seasons. He has coached 84 players who've been taken in the MLB Draft, including 21 who've been selected in the first 10 rounds. That includes Nick Goodwin, who was taken in the seventh round by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2023 MLB Draft.
Three of Hughes' five seasons at K-State have featured a spot in the Big 12 Championship semifinals. His 133-116 (.534) record at K-State includes last season's 35-24 mark, its highest win total since posting 45 in 2013, and that includes a program-record 14 road victories.
This is the first time in Hughes' stint that K-State has earned a national preseason ranking.
"We all came here for postseason rankings," Hughes says. "It's nice for our kids to get the attention and for our program to get the attention finally at a national level, but it's the postseason rankings that we're most interested in."
Hughes figures that in order to appease the selection committee this year, to leave absolutely no doubt that K-State belongs in a NCAA Regional, the Wildcats need to beat high-quality RPI competition on the road. K-State opens the season competing against California, Boston College and Georgetown in the MLB Desert Invitational in Scottsdale, Arizona, on February 16-18. Two days later, the Wildcats face Arizona State in Phoenix. In March, the Wildcats travel to Tennessee and Clemson for back-to-back midweek games. In April, the Wildcats travel to UConn and Northeastern for midweek contests.
"We have to be tough enough to handle the road, and to handle the road midweek," Hughes says. "We all know it. It's not going to be a surprise for us. We have 11 exceptionally tough games, and how we make out in those 11 games will determine where we end up at the end of the season."
The end seems so far away and the beginning of the Road to Omaha is here, a grand opportunity that kept the Wildcats' top talent in the Little Apple.
"Everyone wanted a postseason run (last year)," Day says. "We just wanted a chance to be in the postseason and see what we could do. We were cut short. It definitely played a factor in me coming back and a lot of guys coming back. It speaks a lot to the program and the culture that we have. We're looking to go farther than we did last year."
K-State was one of just three teams in the nation to walk over 300 times, hit over 75 home runs and steal over 100 bases. The Wildcats batted .270, averaged just under seven runs per game, and hit 77 home runs. The Wildcats' 340 walks marked their most since 1997.
K-State finished third in school history in home runs (77), fifth in stolen bases (114), third in walks (340), fourth in sacrifice flies (34) and ninth in RBI (379).
Culpepper, who is switching from third base to his home at shortstop this season, produced an impressive slash line of .325/.423/.576 with eight doubles, 10 home runs, 41 RBI and 16 walks. The third player in school history to be selected and invited to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Training Camp, Culpepper was the top slugger for Team USA with a team-leading .471 batting average and a .853 slugging percentage, with two triples, three home runs and seven RBI.
Culpepper, a junior who is named a Preseason All-American, is also projected to be the No. 28 overall selection in the 2024 MLB Draft.
"I'm comfortable being here, and I want to make my own mark here," Culpepper says. "Going somewhere else was never on my mind. Being in a category or in the same sentence of K-State greats is great, but I'd like to leave my own mark and have my own identity."
The pitching staff last season finished just second to Oklahoma State with a 2.36 strikeout-to-walk ratio and fifth in the Big 12 with a 5.30 ERA. The Wildcats struck out 507 batters while issuing 215 walks, compared to their 5.84 ERA and 280 walks in 2022. K-State issued a league-low 215 walks and 3.82 walks per nine innings.
Boerema, named one of the nation's top-50 starting pitchers by D1Baseball, earned All-Big 12 Second Team accolades in his first season, striking out 95 batters, which ranked fifth in the league. Ruhl made a team-leading 26 appearances, including two starts, and he struck out 51 and walked 22 while opponents hit .267 against him last season. Neighbors became just the second player in school history to earn Consensus All-America honors behind a league-best 11 saves to go along with a 1.85 ERA. He broke the program's TrackMan-era pitching velocity record at 99-mph in the series-opening win against No. 14 Texas Tech on April 28.
Neighbors, a junior, is the third player in school history to earn four Preseason All-American honors in the same season alongside former right-hander Jordan Wicks (2021) and infielder Ross Kivett (2014).
"The culture at K-State is unmatched," Neighbors says. "Just hearing stories from around the country at other programs, there are guys who barely have conversations with their head coach. I feel like we know each other on the deepest of levels. I feel comfortable here and know we're the underdog, and we love that mentality. We want to put ourselves on the map as a national program. That's been my goal and our team's goal since day one and we plan to carry that out."
The Wildcats will get some help with the addition of Ingram, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound native of Belton, Missouri, and a senior transfer from Wichita State. Ingram, an outfielder who was named a Top Impact Transfer by D1Baseball (No. 55), played in 141 games with 132 starts with the Shockers. He slashed .362/.437/.579 with 80 hits and 41 RBI last season, and brings 36 career doubles, six triples and 26 homers to K-State.
"I always heard great things about this program," Ingram says. "One of my good friends is Nick Goodwin, and he always spoke very highly about Coach Hughes and the staff. K-State was one of the first schools to reach out to me, and I was very happy because K-State was definitely No. 1 on my list. I knew this place was awesome."
Yes, K-State is awesome, and its baseball team appears to be pretty awesome as well, and optimism appears to be at an all-time high under Hughes, and plenty of stories will unfurl throughout the season. Hughes loves his depth. He loves the pitching. He loves the batting. He loves his coaching staff.
"We have a lot of kids in this room that decided to come back and be a part of this season specifically to finish some unfinished business and get this school, program and community to a different level in college baseball," Hughes says. "The weather certainly has cooperated with us, and our preparation before we head out next week and jump on the road to Omaha."
Count Rogers of D1Baseball among those anxious to see the Wildcats progress down the road in what could be one of the more memorable seasons in school history.
"It's pretty clear for me," Rogers says. "I love this club offensively, and they're going to really hit. The biggest thing for me is the starting rotation. If they can get the game to Neighbors at the end, he's going to throw two or three innings because he's too valuable. I'll look at arms that can get six or seven innings and they'll be in great shape.
"I'll say this about K-State, if the weekend rotation pans out, I don't think this is a top-25 team, this is a top-10 or top-12 team."
Players Mentioned
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