‘It Doesn’t Matter What Two Games You Win’
Jun 08, 2024 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Kansas State will look to rebound and keep its season alive on Saturday after a 7-4 loss to No. 12 national seed Virginia here at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, where the Wildcats ran into a powerful Cavaliers team that showed why it is hosting a Super Regional for the ninth time in the last 15 years.
K-State, 35-25, saw a 3-0 lead fall as Virginia (45-15) put together two runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth before Henry Godbout delivered the knockout punch in the seventh with a three-run home run that landed well beyond the left field wall, showing why the Cavaliers entered the night ranked second in Division I baseball in batting average to go along with 114 home runs.
The two teams return for Game 2 at 2 p.m. Saturday. They will play a third game at 2 p.m. Sunday if necessary.
"It was a great ballgame," K-State head coach Pete Hughes said. "That's why you play nine innings. Virginia hung out there and capitalized on a couple opportunities. From a coaching perspective, you hate giving up runs for not being fundamentally sound. In a few instances we were, taking nothing away from Virginia's offense, because when you hit a three-run homer with two outs, that's usually a deciding factor in a close game, and that's what they did."
Right-hander Jackson Wentworth (5-5, 4.11 ERA) will get the start for K-State on Saturday. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound native of Urbandale, Iowa, missed his true freshman season in 2022 with Tommy John surgery, and after building back to form in 2023 is playing the best ball of his career this season. He was named to the Fayetteville Region All-Tournament Team.
Wentworth will go against right-hander Jay Woolfolk (3-1), 6.15 ERA, who put together the best performance of his career in Sunday's regional against Mississippi State by throwing into the ninth inning and fanning a career-high seven batters in his first start since March 17.
Virginia left-hander Evan Blanco earned the win on Friday to improve to 8-3. He entered as the only Cavalier in the starting rotation for the duration of the season with five of the team's eight quality starts this season. He had pitched five or more innings in eight of his last nine starts. He had allowed four runs in his last 29 innings pitched.
K-State has won a Super Regional game before. That came in 2013 in the program's first Super Regional, but the Wildcats went 1-2 at No. 3 Oregon State in the Corvallis Super Regional.
Eleven years later, the Wildcats are back. And they'll look to stick around a couple more days in Charlottesville.
"We've done it all year long, a two-out-of-three series," Hughes said. "Their mindset is going to be great. We're still two games away from going to Omaha, and we're one game from getting back into this series.
"Our guys will be resilient, they'll respond, they're a resilient group. That's what it's all about. You want to play in these important games in the month of June. It's resiliency and it's urgency to get back into this thing."
There's really no telling how this story will end, except we know it will end. Each team entered with a three-game winning streak. K-State was 6-4 in its last 10 games and Virginia was 8-2.
K-State lefty graduate Owen Boerema, who entered 6-3 and with a 5.07 ERA, took the mound for a pitching staff that had struck out a school-record 577 batters this season and boasted a 5.37 team ERA with a 2.49 strikeout-to-walk-ratio.
Boerema, a native of Litchfield, Minnesota, spent three seasons at Northeastern (Minn.), a Division III school in St. Paul, Minnesota, and prepared for this stage. It took a lot of hard work. It was while playing for the Mankato MoonDogs with fellow K-State pitcher Tyson Neighbors that K-State associate head coach Austin Wates first noticed Boerema. When Boerema entered the transfer portal, K-State came calling.
On Friday, he allowed four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and three walks in 5 2/3 innings.
"I have a lot of confidence in the team," Boerema said. "It doesn't matter what two games you win, you have to win two. I'm confident we'll come back with a lot of energy, and I think it'll be a fun game."
The Wildcats struck first when Brendan Jones, in the Wildcats' first at-bat, hit a triple to right center that outfielders lost in the sun. Jadon Parsons hit a sacrifice lineout to second base to score Jones for a 1-0 lead.
In the third inning, as shadows began to loom, Raphael Pelletier singled to right and Jones took one off the helmet to put two on base with no outs. Parsons executed a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance Pelletier and Jones. Then Kaelen Culpepper hit a standup double off the left field wall to score both of his teammates for a 3-0 lead.
K-State fans chanted "K-S-U! K-S-U!" which was audible to everyone in the ballpark.
Virginia got on the board in the fifth inning when it scored two unearned runs. First Boerema walked Griff O'Ferrall. Then Bobby Whalen reached on a fielding error by Parsons. Then Casey Saucke hit a sacrifice fly to score O'Ferrall for the Cavaliers' first run of the night.
Virginia scored its second run on a groundout.
K-State led 3-2 at that point, but it seemed momentum was slipping into Virginia's favor.
"This game goes both ways," Hughes said. "On a couple instances, things that we usually control we didn't do a good job controlling."
When K-State was unable to do anything in the sixth inning, the crowd, which had been largely shushed by K-State's bats, came to life.
Virginia put baserunners on first and second with two out when Boerema left the mound after 95 pitches thrown. Blake Dean (4-3 3.38 ERA) entered and allowed an O'Ferrall standup double that scored two runs.
Suddenly, K-State trailed, 4-3, and as the seventh inning hit, fans from both teams stood up and cheered on their players.
K-State entered with 14 come-from-behind victories, including three on the road. The Wildcats had overcome four-run deficits in four games and five three-run games. Of the 14 wins, six were one-run games.
David Bishop lifted a solo shot to right center field to knot the score 4-4 with no outs in the seventh and the Wildcats were right back in the contest.
After Virginia put two baserunners on base, the Wildcats went to Cole Wisenbaker (4-0, 2.51 ERA) with one out. Then Godbout wound up and blasted a three-run homer well beyond the left field wall, and the Wildcats faced a 7-4 deficit that proved too difficult to overcome.
"We liked the matchup with the style we brought in with (Wisenbaker) and the sinkerball," Hughes said. "The hitter before, we thought we had that double-play ball, which would've got us out of the inning, and we just kind of hesitated on that play to second base, and were just able to get one, and that's what left us with runners on first and third with two outs. He left the ball up, and nice job (by Godbout), and that's your approach against that style of pitching is to see the ball up and he saw it and didn't miss it in a big situation.
"It was the right matchup. I honestly thought we should've been out of the inning if we would've executed that play, and we just didn't do it fast enough."
It marked Virginia's 23rd come-from-behind win this season.
"That's what winning programs do, they come from behind, and they know how to play with a lead and play from behind," Hughes said. "When you've won as much as those guys have won, it's an expected thing. Winning breeds winning, and that's what their expectation level is, and it's how I feel the same about my team, too."
There was plenty of pageantry and hoopla at Disharoon Park — along with a few familiar ties.
Culpepper and Neighbors were teammates with Virginia O'Ferrall and Woolfolk on the 2023 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. Hughes served as head coach at Virginia Tech from 2007-13.
K-State and Virginia both swept through their Regionals. The Wildcats beat No. 5 Arkansas en route to the NCAA Fayetteville Regional Championship, and the Cavaliers topped Mississippi State for the Charlottesville Regional title.
A sign behind the rightfield wall at Disharoon Park in big bold letters read: "2015 National Champions." The Cavaliers have been to two of the last three College World Series.
This K-State squad entered battletested with one of the toughest schedules in the nation. Although K-State entered 1-2 against top-30 RPI non-conference opponents this season — the Wildcats lost at No. 1 Tennessee and at No. 7 Clemson in the beginning of March before beating No. 5 Arkansas — it was hardly intimidated against the Cavaliers. In all, K-State had played a total of 10 teams (20 games) against teams that competed in the 2023 postseason.
But the Wildcats fell just short here at Disharoon Park on Friday.
On Saturday, they'll look to keep their season alive.
"It's a two-out-of-three series with a quick bounce back of less than 24 hours," Hughes said. "You have to get your team feeling good with a quick turnaround and get back into the series."
Kansas State will look to rebound and keep its season alive on Saturday after a 7-4 loss to No. 12 national seed Virginia here at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, where the Wildcats ran into a powerful Cavaliers team that showed why it is hosting a Super Regional for the ninth time in the last 15 years.
K-State, 35-25, saw a 3-0 lead fall as Virginia (45-15) put together two runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth before Henry Godbout delivered the knockout punch in the seventh with a three-run home run that landed well beyond the left field wall, showing why the Cavaliers entered the night ranked second in Division I baseball in batting average to go along with 114 home runs.
The two teams return for Game 2 at 2 p.m. Saturday. They will play a third game at 2 p.m. Sunday if necessary.
"It was a great ballgame," K-State head coach Pete Hughes said. "That's why you play nine innings. Virginia hung out there and capitalized on a couple opportunities. From a coaching perspective, you hate giving up runs for not being fundamentally sound. In a few instances we were, taking nothing away from Virginia's offense, because when you hit a three-run homer with two outs, that's usually a deciding factor in a close game, and that's what they did."
Right-hander Jackson Wentworth (5-5, 4.11 ERA) will get the start for K-State on Saturday. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound native of Urbandale, Iowa, missed his true freshman season in 2022 with Tommy John surgery, and after building back to form in 2023 is playing the best ball of his career this season. He was named to the Fayetteville Region All-Tournament Team.
Wentworth will go against right-hander Jay Woolfolk (3-1), 6.15 ERA, who put together the best performance of his career in Sunday's regional against Mississippi State by throwing into the ninth inning and fanning a career-high seven batters in his first start since March 17.
Virginia left-hander Evan Blanco earned the win on Friday to improve to 8-3. He entered as the only Cavalier in the starting rotation for the duration of the season with five of the team's eight quality starts this season. He had pitched five or more innings in eight of his last nine starts. He had allowed four runs in his last 29 innings pitched.
K-State has won a Super Regional game before. That came in 2013 in the program's first Super Regional, but the Wildcats went 1-2 at No. 3 Oregon State in the Corvallis Super Regional.
Eleven years later, the Wildcats are back. And they'll look to stick around a couple more days in Charlottesville.
"We've done it all year long, a two-out-of-three series," Hughes said. "Their mindset is going to be great. We're still two games away from going to Omaha, and we're one game from getting back into this series.
"Our guys will be resilient, they'll respond, they're a resilient group. That's what it's all about. You want to play in these important games in the month of June. It's resiliency and it's urgency to get back into this thing."
There's really no telling how this story will end, except we know it will end. Each team entered with a three-game winning streak. K-State was 6-4 in its last 10 games and Virginia was 8-2.
K-State lefty graduate Owen Boerema, who entered 6-3 and with a 5.07 ERA, took the mound for a pitching staff that had struck out a school-record 577 batters this season and boasted a 5.37 team ERA with a 2.49 strikeout-to-walk-ratio.
Boerema, a native of Litchfield, Minnesota, spent three seasons at Northeastern (Minn.), a Division III school in St. Paul, Minnesota, and prepared for this stage. It took a lot of hard work. It was while playing for the Mankato MoonDogs with fellow K-State pitcher Tyson Neighbors that K-State associate head coach Austin Wates first noticed Boerema. When Boerema entered the transfer portal, K-State came calling.
On Friday, he allowed four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and three walks in 5 2/3 innings.
"I have a lot of confidence in the team," Boerema said. "It doesn't matter what two games you win, you have to win two. I'm confident we'll come back with a lot of energy, and I think it'll be a fun game."
The Wildcats struck first when Brendan Jones, in the Wildcats' first at-bat, hit a triple to right center that outfielders lost in the sun. Jadon Parsons hit a sacrifice lineout to second base to score Jones for a 1-0 lead.
In the third inning, as shadows began to loom, Raphael Pelletier singled to right and Jones took one off the helmet to put two on base with no outs. Parsons executed a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance Pelletier and Jones. Then Kaelen Culpepper hit a standup double off the left field wall to score both of his teammates for a 3-0 lead.
K-State fans chanted "K-S-U! K-S-U!" which was audible to everyone in the ballpark.
Virginia got on the board in the fifth inning when it scored two unearned runs. First Boerema walked Griff O'Ferrall. Then Bobby Whalen reached on a fielding error by Parsons. Then Casey Saucke hit a sacrifice fly to score O'Ferrall for the Cavaliers' first run of the night.
Virginia scored its second run on a groundout.
K-State led 3-2 at that point, but it seemed momentum was slipping into Virginia's favor.
"This game goes both ways," Hughes said. "On a couple instances, things that we usually control we didn't do a good job controlling."
When K-State was unable to do anything in the sixth inning, the crowd, which had been largely shushed by K-State's bats, came to life.
Virginia put baserunners on first and second with two out when Boerema left the mound after 95 pitches thrown. Blake Dean (4-3 3.38 ERA) entered and allowed an O'Ferrall standup double that scored two runs.
Suddenly, K-State trailed, 4-3, and as the seventh inning hit, fans from both teams stood up and cheered on their players.
K-State entered with 14 come-from-behind victories, including three on the road. The Wildcats had overcome four-run deficits in four games and five three-run games. Of the 14 wins, six were one-run games.
David Bishop lifted a solo shot to right center field to knot the score 4-4 with no outs in the seventh and the Wildcats were right back in the contest.
After Virginia put two baserunners on base, the Wildcats went to Cole Wisenbaker (4-0, 2.51 ERA) with one out. Then Godbout wound up and blasted a three-run homer well beyond the left field wall, and the Wildcats faced a 7-4 deficit that proved too difficult to overcome.
"We liked the matchup with the style we brought in with (Wisenbaker) and the sinkerball," Hughes said. "The hitter before, we thought we had that double-play ball, which would've got us out of the inning, and we just kind of hesitated on that play to second base, and were just able to get one, and that's what left us with runners on first and third with two outs. He left the ball up, and nice job (by Godbout), and that's your approach against that style of pitching is to see the ball up and he saw it and didn't miss it in a big situation.
"It was the right matchup. I honestly thought we should've been out of the inning if we would've executed that play, and we just didn't do it fast enough."
It marked Virginia's 23rd come-from-behind win this season.
"That's what winning programs do, they come from behind, and they know how to play with a lead and play from behind," Hughes said. "When you've won as much as those guys have won, it's an expected thing. Winning breeds winning, and that's what their expectation level is, and it's how I feel the same about my team, too."
There was plenty of pageantry and hoopla at Disharoon Park — along with a few familiar ties.
Culpepper and Neighbors were teammates with Virginia O'Ferrall and Woolfolk on the 2023 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. Hughes served as head coach at Virginia Tech from 2007-13.
K-State and Virginia both swept through their Regionals. The Wildcats beat No. 5 Arkansas en route to the NCAA Fayetteville Regional Championship, and the Cavaliers topped Mississippi State for the Charlottesville Regional title.
A sign behind the rightfield wall at Disharoon Park in big bold letters read: "2015 National Champions." The Cavaliers have been to two of the last three College World Series.
This K-State squad entered battletested with one of the toughest schedules in the nation. Although K-State entered 1-2 against top-30 RPI non-conference opponents this season — the Wildcats lost at No. 1 Tennessee and at No. 7 Clemson in the beginning of March before beating No. 5 Arkansas — it was hardly intimidated against the Cavaliers. In all, K-State had played a total of 10 teams (20 games) against teams that competed in the 2023 postseason.
But the Wildcats fell just short here at Disharoon Park on Friday.
On Saturday, they'll look to keep their season alive.
"It's a two-out-of-three series with a quick bounce back of less than 24 hours," Hughes said. "You have to get your team feeling good with a quick turnaround and get back into the series."
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