Kansas State University Athletics
No Sitting Back
Oct 14, 2025 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
It's been 135 days since Pete Hughes pulled off his Kansas State uniform for the last time of the 2025 baseball season — a head coach's uniform with no last name embedded upon the back, he wants you to know, because it isn't about Pete Hughes.
Today, Hughes sits in a cushy brown-leather chair near the corner of his expanse office in the corner of Tointon Family Stadium. He entered in a lavender polo and a light-blue-and-white-checkered sports jacket and drew the shades on windows that peer out from the third-base line on a baseball field that has seen many exciting moments since he became head coach on June 8, 2018.
Hughes, who enters his eighth season at K-State, is the winningest active Big 12 Conference head baseball coach with 852 career victories, which ranks 19th among active Power 4 head coaches, and he is the only active NCAA Division I coach to have served as head coach at four Power 4 programs — Boston College (1999-2006), Virginia Tech (2007-2013) and Oklahoma (2014-2017). He has posted 25 winning seasons in 28 years as a head coach, including all but one season at K-State, taking the Wildcats to the 2024 NCAA Super Regional and 2025 NCAA Regional.
Large matte silver lettering posted along an overhang in his office reveals that the 57-year-old native of Brockton, Massachusetts isn't letting down anytime soon.
"THE OMAHA STANDARD," the silver letters beam.
"I never take anything for granted," Hughes says. "How fortunate I am to raise a family and wear a baseball uniform in a community like Kansas State. If you look at how I got here, I was the head coach of a third-place OU team that had a No. 2 seed in the Regional and with everyone coming back, and I got fired. But that's what got me here. And this was the road that my career was put on for a reason, and thank God, because this is the best stop along the way for my wife and I and my family, just to be at Kansas State and to work for Gene Taylor and President Richard Linton.
"It's been a blessing to take a program that was dead-last in the Big 12 in the standings, and in offense and defense and fielding percentage, and to flip it and to do that with this community and watch their reaction over our success. That makes me tick, man, being around good people and having success for those good people."
After finishing with a 35-26 record, including a 15-15 mark in the Big 12, and reaching the 2024 NCAA Regional, K-State faced challenges last season. Virtually the entire starting lineup was gone, including five MLB Draftees that included the best closer in college baseball. And yet, Hughes and his coaching staff pieced together a hard-nosed squad that fought, and fought hard, and the Wildcats were battle tested by playing one of the toughest schedules in America, and they finished 32-26 overall, including 17-13 in the Big 12, posting a program record for the most Big 12 victories, and got back into the NCAA Regionals for a second straight season.
And now we're here. And Hughes is pumped.
"We came here to go to Omaha," he says. "We're really close. Really close. We made huge strides last year by following up a Super Regional when we lost our entire roster, basically, and replaced it with a new roster, and we were right back in the national tournament. That's what national programs do. They sustain success. They overcome the draft and graduation and continue to be good because that's what their brand is. That's what K-State baseball is, and we aspire to be a national tournament team every year, and to get to Omaha."
Since September 24, K-State baseball has been immersed in fall baseball, but really, the baseball drills and pitching and catching and fielding can at times be an all-the-time thing around Tointon. The players utilize the players' lounge and kitchen and locker room because they like to be there and like to be around each other. They lift and practice begins at 2:30 p.m. — just like in the spring.
But things are different as Hughes looks at this 2026 squad.
"We have a lot of returners. I couldn't say that last year," Hughes says. "There's nothing like experience and depth. We've had a few nice additions through the portal to add to our roster that had success last year. When I think of this team, I get excited because they're one year older, so hopefully the mistakes of last year before of inexperience will no longer be a part of who we are, and we can play cleaner baseball and run our offense, and we can win more games. That's what experience brings you, is cleaner baseball and more wins.
"Yeah, I'm excited about it."
And plenty busy as well.
"This is our busiest part of the year as coaches," Hughes says. "We're recruiting non-stop. Our staff is out. I rarely have a full staff for practice. Those guys are on the road like crazy. During the weekends, we're entertaining families and trying to get more commits to improve our program. On home football weekends, it consumes your entire weekend having families and recruits, but we enjoy it. We're salesmen in the fall, that's for sure, but we sell a hell of a product here at Kansas State. I always tell our recruits and parents, 'You're going to go to a football game, but it's not a football game, it's who we are as a community.' That's true. We love doing it.
"But, yeah, this is our busiest time of the year with developing your team, and still recruiting is at a fevered pitch right now. We're all driving toward November to fill our class for next year and set us up for a good portal session in the spring."
The transfer portal, it appears, has been good to K-State this year.
Hughes goes down the list.
Senior outfielder Robby Bolin: "He is a transfer from Nebraska and is a center fielder who has been a really big surprise for us. Coach Austin Wates has done a great job of bringing out that power tool. He's hit more home runs this fall than he's hit in his career, so that's been fun to watch."
Redshirt senior right-hander Cohen Feser: "He is a transfer from TCU, a right-handed pitcher who's going to give us a lot of quality innings with a lot of quality at-bats."
Senior right hander Matt Flores: "He is a transfer from UC Riverside, a kid with a ton of upside on the mound, a right-handed pitcher who's been a bright spot."
Senior left hander Robert Fortenberry: "He is a left-handed reliever from Mississippi State, is a veteran bulldog who we expect to lean on with a presence out of the bullpen and throw in high-leverage situations and innings for us."
Senior infielder Grant Gallagher: "He is from East Tennessee State will be a utility infielder for us. He led the country in walks last year and hit 20 home runs."
Junior infielder/right hander Austin Haley: "He is a junior college transfer from Murray State in Oklahoma. He's a two-way player for us, he'll be a utility infielder and a right-handed reliever. He's had an outstanding fall."
Graduate catcher Shea McGahan: "He is a veteran catcher that from SEMO, and he's going to give us great depth and really help out Bear Madliak. Splitting up those duties will help so both of those guys are rested and can really be an offensive presence. Shae has been really good for us this fall giving us depth at catcher, which we needed."
Redshirt senior infielder Carlos Vasquez: "He is a transfer from Western Kentucky, a third baseman who hit almost .360 and went to a Regional. He's a winner, a great defender and a really experienced seasoned hitter."
Hughes looks up from the list.
"Offensively, we've really added some pieces, and in our rotation, we've added quality arm," he says. "The portal was good to us."
As for key returners for the 2026 season?
There's sophomore utility player Donte Lewis: "He has a chance to be special, and he has a lot of room to grow, and he wants to get better that's for sure. He's had a really good fall. I've seen tremendous growth in both areas of his game as a positional player and pitcher. He has a chance to be a special player and he's a loyal kid. He never once entertained getting into the portal. That tells you what kind of character and foundation he's working with. Those guys always have success."
Junior infielder Dee Kennedy: "This is his draft year. If he doesn't overthink it and just thinks about getting better every day and winning games for Kansas State, he'll be in a great spot come draft day. Dee has a chance to be special for us this year. He's gotten better every year, and we expect him to do the same thing."
Senior infielder Shintaro Inoue: "He has a year under his belt, and he's gotten better and made a seamless transition into Power 4 baseball. I'm looking to see how he builds on that this year."
Senior left hander Lincoln Sheffield: "He didn't miss a start for us last year in the rotation and that's a heck of an amount of experienced innings for us to lean on."
Senior left hander Cole Wisenbaker: "He is coming back after missing the entire year and is a critical left-hander for our bullpen."
Redshirt junior right hander Tanner Duke: "He has gotten better and will continue to grow and give us major innings on the mound."
Hughes pauses.
"Perhaps our most talented guy is (junior right hander) James Guyette," Hughes says. "We leaned on James a lot last year and asked him to throw one inning there and four innings there, but we're going to give him the ball and see how he pans out as a starter. I know everyone feels really confident when James has the ball in his hands, so it'll be nice to start a game with him pitching for us and see what he can do in that role. He's going to have a tremendous year.
"If you look at the top of your rotation with James Guyette and Donte Lewis, you want experience and competitive people in that rotation spot, but more importantly you want talented people there, too. You can be competitive, a great team guy, but if you don't have a talent, you're not going to win the Big 12. We're fortunate those guys are built character wise along the same lines as their talent level."
Hughes won't have long to wait for his initial chance to evaluate his personnel and the Wildcats' progress. K-State will play Kansas in a fall scrimmage at 3:00 p.m. Friday, October 24, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, Kansas.
"I just think it's a great way to promote baseball in our state and promote our rivalry — not like it has to be promoted," Hughes says. "It's just two really good programs. We think you can be an Omaha program and be in the Midwest. It doesn't have to be in the SEC. This is just another way to get our two programs out there and get our kids to compete, to see what it looks like and feels like for the spring."
Hughes has no trouble keeping baseball competitive for his players in the fall.
"What I tell my team is nobody owns a job here," Hughes says. "Every job is for rent. Those returners can get beat out today. I tell our guys, 'When you're bored because it's fall baseball, just remember guys are winning and losing jobs in September and October in our program.' It's highly competitive out there right now. That depth chart — we meet once a week on personnel and that depth chart changes every week. No one owns a job, including me. Every job is for rent."
What makes for a successful fall in baseball?
"I want the new guys to learn our culture," Hughes says. "I want the younger guys get better. Our culture remains healthy and strong as it was before. If I look back at the fall, I want to see we have a really deep program, a program that's competitive, goal-oriented at the highest level, and that's hungry and eager and talented. That's what we want at the end of the fall. And healthy.
"You're trying to learn some faces and names but more importantly how they go about their business, then you show them what your culture is all about and how you go about your business. Our returners do a great job with that — 'Hey, this is our culture and the way it's been. Here's how we do things.' We don't need anything else brought into our culture. Our culture is healthy. Just fall in line and be a part of it because Kansas State is a great place to play baseball."
It's been 135 days since the end of the 2025 season. Except it hasn't felt that long for Hughes. Soon after that season ended, this season began. It's baseball on the brain all the time. Every day.
At least it is in the Little Apple.
"Right when the season ended, we weren't sitting around decompressing — we were onto the portal," Hughes says. "You never sit back and relax in this profession. It's onto the next win, the next game, the next recruit, the next transfer. It never ends. As a head coach, I sit back and (pitching coach) Coach Rudy Darrow and (associate head coach) Coach Austin Wates sit down and evaluate the season, and how we can do things better, and how we can improve by bringing in different styles of baseball players.
"You never sit back when you're trying to get to Omaha."
It's been 135 days since Pete Hughes pulled off his Kansas State uniform for the last time of the 2025 baseball season — a head coach's uniform with no last name embedded upon the back, he wants you to know, because it isn't about Pete Hughes.
Today, Hughes sits in a cushy brown-leather chair near the corner of his expanse office in the corner of Tointon Family Stadium. He entered in a lavender polo and a light-blue-and-white-checkered sports jacket and drew the shades on windows that peer out from the third-base line on a baseball field that has seen many exciting moments since he became head coach on June 8, 2018.
Hughes, who enters his eighth season at K-State, is the winningest active Big 12 Conference head baseball coach with 852 career victories, which ranks 19th among active Power 4 head coaches, and he is the only active NCAA Division I coach to have served as head coach at four Power 4 programs — Boston College (1999-2006), Virginia Tech (2007-2013) and Oklahoma (2014-2017). He has posted 25 winning seasons in 28 years as a head coach, including all but one season at K-State, taking the Wildcats to the 2024 NCAA Super Regional and 2025 NCAA Regional.
Large matte silver lettering posted along an overhang in his office reveals that the 57-year-old native of Brockton, Massachusetts isn't letting down anytime soon.
"THE OMAHA STANDARD," the silver letters beam.
"I never take anything for granted," Hughes says. "How fortunate I am to raise a family and wear a baseball uniform in a community like Kansas State. If you look at how I got here, I was the head coach of a third-place OU team that had a No. 2 seed in the Regional and with everyone coming back, and I got fired. But that's what got me here. And this was the road that my career was put on for a reason, and thank God, because this is the best stop along the way for my wife and I and my family, just to be at Kansas State and to work for Gene Taylor and President Richard Linton.
"It's been a blessing to take a program that was dead-last in the Big 12 in the standings, and in offense and defense and fielding percentage, and to flip it and to do that with this community and watch their reaction over our success. That makes me tick, man, being around good people and having success for those good people."
After finishing with a 35-26 record, including a 15-15 mark in the Big 12, and reaching the 2024 NCAA Regional, K-State faced challenges last season. Virtually the entire starting lineup was gone, including five MLB Draftees that included the best closer in college baseball. And yet, Hughes and his coaching staff pieced together a hard-nosed squad that fought, and fought hard, and the Wildcats were battle tested by playing one of the toughest schedules in America, and they finished 32-26 overall, including 17-13 in the Big 12, posting a program record for the most Big 12 victories, and got back into the NCAA Regionals for a second straight season.
And now we're here. And Hughes is pumped.
"We came here to go to Omaha," he says. "We're really close. Really close. We made huge strides last year by following up a Super Regional when we lost our entire roster, basically, and replaced it with a new roster, and we were right back in the national tournament. That's what national programs do. They sustain success. They overcome the draft and graduation and continue to be good because that's what their brand is. That's what K-State baseball is, and we aspire to be a national tournament team every year, and to get to Omaha."
Since September 24, K-State baseball has been immersed in fall baseball, but really, the baseball drills and pitching and catching and fielding can at times be an all-the-time thing around Tointon. The players utilize the players' lounge and kitchen and locker room because they like to be there and like to be around each other. They lift and practice begins at 2:30 p.m. — just like in the spring.
But things are different as Hughes looks at this 2026 squad.
"We have a lot of returners. I couldn't say that last year," Hughes says. "There's nothing like experience and depth. We've had a few nice additions through the portal to add to our roster that had success last year. When I think of this team, I get excited because they're one year older, so hopefully the mistakes of last year before of inexperience will no longer be a part of who we are, and we can play cleaner baseball and run our offense, and we can win more games. That's what experience brings you, is cleaner baseball and more wins.
"Yeah, I'm excited about it."
And plenty busy as well.
"This is our busiest part of the year as coaches," Hughes says. "We're recruiting non-stop. Our staff is out. I rarely have a full staff for practice. Those guys are on the road like crazy. During the weekends, we're entertaining families and trying to get more commits to improve our program. On home football weekends, it consumes your entire weekend having families and recruits, but we enjoy it. We're salesmen in the fall, that's for sure, but we sell a hell of a product here at Kansas State. I always tell our recruits and parents, 'You're going to go to a football game, but it's not a football game, it's who we are as a community.' That's true. We love doing it.
"But, yeah, this is our busiest time of the year with developing your team, and still recruiting is at a fevered pitch right now. We're all driving toward November to fill our class for next year and set us up for a good portal session in the spring."
The transfer portal, it appears, has been good to K-State this year.
Hughes goes down the list.
Senior outfielder Robby Bolin: "He is a transfer from Nebraska and is a center fielder who has been a really big surprise for us. Coach Austin Wates has done a great job of bringing out that power tool. He's hit more home runs this fall than he's hit in his career, so that's been fun to watch."
Redshirt senior right-hander Cohen Feser: "He is a transfer from TCU, a right-handed pitcher who's going to give us a lot of quality innings with a lot of quality at-bats."
Senior right hander Matt Flores: "He is a transfer from UC Riverside, a kid with a ton of upside on the mound, a right-handed pitcher who's been a bright spot."
Senior left hander Robert Fortenberry: "He is a left-handed reliever from Mississippi State, is a veteran bulldog who we expect to lean on with a presence out of the bullpen and throw in high-leverage situations and innings for us."
Senior infielder Grant Gallagher: "He is from East Tennessee State will be a utility infielder for us. He led the country in walks last year and hit 20 home runs."
Junior infielder/right hander Austin Haley: "He is a junior college transfer from Murray State in Oklahoma. He's a two-way player for us, he'll be a utility infielder and a right-handed reliever. He's had an outstanding fall."
Graduate catcher Shea McGahan: "He is a veteran catcher that from SEMO, and he's going to give us great depth and really help out Bear Madliak. Splitting up those duties will help so both of those guys are rested and can really be an offensive presence. Shae has been really good for us this fall giving us depth at catcher, which we needed."
Redshirt senior infielder Carlos Vasquez: "He is a transfer from Western Kentucky, a third baseman who hit almost .360 and went to a Regional. He's a winner, a great defender and a really experienced seasoned hitter."
Hughes looks up from the list.
"Offensively, we've really added some pieces, and in our rotation, we've added quality arm," he says. "The portal was good to us."
As for key returners for the 2026 season?
There's sophomore utility player Donte Lewis: "He has a chance to be special, and he has a lot of room to grow, and he wants to get better that's for sure. He's had a really good fall. I've seen tremendous growth in both areas of his game as a positional player and pitcher. He has a chance to be a special player and he's a loyal kid. He never once entertained getting into the portal. That tells you what kind of character and foundation he's working with. Those guys always have success."
Junior infielder Dee Kennedy: "This is his draft year. If he doesn't overthink it and just thinks about getting better every day and winning games for Kansas State, he'll be in a great spot come draft day. Dee has a chance to be special for us this year. He's gotten better every year, and we expect him to do the same thing."
Senior infielder Shintaro Inoue: "He has a year under his belt, and he's gotten better and made a seamless transition into Power 4 baseball. I'm looking to see how he builds on that this year."
Senior left hander Lincoln Sheffield: "He didn't miss a start for us last year in the rotation and that's a heck of an amount of experienced innings for us to lean on."
Senior left hander Cole Wisenbaker: "He is coming back after missing the entire year and is a critical left-hander for our bullpen."
Redshirt junior right hander Tanner Duke: "He has gotten better and will continue to grow and give us major innings on the mound."
Hughes pauses.
"Perhaps our most talented guy is (junior right hander) James Guyette," Hughes says. "We leaned on James a lot last year and asked him to throw one inning there and four innings there, but we're going to give him the ball and see how he pans out as a starter. I know everyone feels really confident when James has the ball in his hands, so it'll be nice to start a game with him pitching for us and see what he can do in that role. He's going to have a tremendous year.
"If you look at the top of your rotation with James Guyette and Donte Lewis, you want experience and competitive people in that rotation spot, but more importantly you want talented people there, too. You can be competitive, a great team guy, but if you don't have a talent, you're not going to win the Big 12. We're fortunate those guys are built character wise along the same lines as their talent level."
Hughes won't have long to wait for his initial chance to evaluate his personnel and the Wildcats' progress. K-State will play Kansas in a fall scrimmage at 3:00 p.m. Friday, October 24, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, Kansas.
"I just think it's a great way to promote baseball in our state and promote our rivalry — not like it has to be promoted," Hughes says. "It's just two really good programs. We think you can be an Omaha program and be in the Midwest. It doesn't have to be in the SEC. This is just another way to get our two programs out there and get our kids to compete, to see what it looks like and feels like for the spring."
Hughes has no trouble keeping baseball competitive for his players in the fall.
"What I tell my team is nobody owns a job here," Hughes says. "Every job is for rent. Those returners can get beat out today. I tell our guys, 'When you're bored because it's fall baseball, just remember guys are winning and losing jobs in September and October in our program.' It's highly competitive out there right now. That depth chart — we meet once a week on personnel and that depth chart changes every week. No one owns a job, including me. Every job is for rent."
What makes for a successful fall in baseball?
"I want the new guys to learn our culture," Hughes says. "I want the younger guys get better. Our culture remains healthy and strong as it was before. If I look back at the fall, I want to see we have a really deep program, a program that's competitive, goal-oriented at the highest level, and that's hungry and eager and talented. That's what we want at the end of the fall. And healthy.
"You're trying to learn some faces and names but more importantly how they go about their business, then you show them what your culture is all about and how you go about your business. Our returners do a great job with that — 'Hey, this is our culture and the way it's been. Here's how we do things.' We don't need anything else brought into our culture. Our culture is healthy. Just fall in line and be a part of it because Kansas State is a great place to play baseball."
It's been 135 days since the end of the 2025 season. Except it hasn't felt that long for Hughes. Soon after that season ended, this season began. It's baseball on the brain all the time. Every day.
At least it is in the Little Apple.
"Right when the season ended, we weren't sitting around decompressing — we were onto the portal," Hughes says. "You never sit back and relax in this profession. It's onto the next win, the next game, the next recruit, the next transfer. It never ends. As a head coach, I sit back and (pitching coach) Coach Rudy Darrow and (associate head coach) Coach Austin Wates sit down and evaluate the season, and how we can do things better, and how we can improve by bringing in different styles of baseball players.
"You never sit back when you're trying to get to Omaha."
Players Mentioned
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