English Enjoying Early Success

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Twice the slider found the plate. But as Nick English stared down the third pitch of his at-bat, one thing shot through the mind of the Kansas State true freshman right fielder: "There's no way I'm going to strike out." It was the bottom of the 12^th inning. Score tied, 13-13. One out. All-American Kaelen Culpepper on third. Cincinnati junior right-hander Joey Hurth on the mound. "Let's go," English thought.

Hurth hurled the inside fastball. English crushed it. That was his favorite pitch. It was pie with extra Cool-Whip. Boom. As English sent the ball down the right-field line, the crowd of 1,952 came to its feet at Tointon Family Stadium. This was it. The 3-hour, 55-minute saga, in which the Wildcats came from behind twice, now had a third, and final, lead change, as Culpepper darted home, and the hootin' and hollerin' white-clad Wildcats spilled onto the field in celebration.

"It was such a rush," English says. "I just remember seeing everybody come after me. I was out of breath."

It's the 5-foot-11, 195-pounder from Olathe, Kansas, the 2023 Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year, the 2023 Rawlings National Catcher of the Year out of Olathe South High School, who's quickly taking everyone's breath away.

Entering this weekend's series against Missouri State, English is slashing .327/.510/.453 and ranks second with six doubles to go along with one home run and 15 RBI.

He also ranks first on the team in extra-inning walk-offs.

"It's honestly a surreal feeling," English says. "It's a great feeling because I've worked my whole life for this. Even seeing my name in the lineup is an awesome feeling."

He called his father, Brandon, who was sitting with mom Carrie and oldest son Jake at a restaurant, after his walk-off heroics.

"They said they were watching the game on TV," English says, "and they all started screaming in the middle of the restaurant."

Nick's brother, Jake, is a senior catcher at Kansas. Brandon and Carrie attended Kansas. Brandon played baseball at Kansas from 1994-95. In all, seven family members attended Kansas. Odds leaned heavily in Kansas' favor that Nick, who grew up a KU fan, would become a Jayhawk. But Nick played summer-league baseball with P.J. Hughes, who happened to be the son of K-State baseball head coach Pete Hughes.

"I got close with P.J. and Coach Hughes," says English, who slowly switched his allegiance to purple-and-white. He committed to K-State on August 16. 2021 — a day in which he simply sat with his parents at the table in their home and told them, "I'm going to K-State."

He took an official recruiting visit to K-State in fall 2022. He had four other major-college scholarship offers, including Kansas. But K-State stood above the rest.

"It was the coaching staff," English says. "I knew how they ran the program, and who was here, and I loved all of it. I loved everything about it."

English told his roommate, Rohan Putz, a freshman outfielder from Bishop Miege High School that "we actually made it." He slid on his K-State uniform for the first time and came out of the dugout and onto the field at Tointon and one thought immediately came to mind: "There's no play else I'd want to play college baseball."

"The fan base and everyone in that dugout has my back no matter what, and they're going to cheer for K-State and the team no matter what," he says. "It's a feeling like…I feel like I'm at home."

And he intends on protecting home when Kansas visits for a three-game series on May 3-5 at Tointon. It'll be a battle between the English brothers. Nick knows there's plenty more at stake.

"It's going to be awesome," Nick says. "I want to beat KU. That's a big thing for me. I also just want to beat my brother."

It's been a favorable path for English as he reaches the midway point of his initial season with the Wildcats. Once a 5-year-old playing t-ball, English quickly knew baseball was his passion, and he's making his presence known on the big stage in the Big 12 Conference, while understanding there could be some bumps in the road.

"Everyone has ups and downs, and no matter what I want to be a good teammate to everyone on our team," he says. "That's a big goal throughout the season. Everyone gets frustrated and everyone gets a little down on themselves, but you can't dwell on something that's happened."

But you can certainly celebrate something that's awesome — like a walk-off extra-innings single against a tough opponent.

"There was no way I was going to let myself strike out in that situation," he says. "Honestly, I just intended on putting the ball into play."

Instead, he enjoyed the baseball highlight of his life.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Kaelen Culpepper

Nick English

Rohan Putz

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