Kansas State University Athletics
Bigger Goals in Mind
Apr 01, 2025 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Sitting inside the Kansas State coaches meeting room in the aftermath of the Wildcats' latest victory — a walk-off single for a 5-4 win to sweep Texas Tech on Sunday at Tointon Family Stadium — head coach Pete Hughes, who has his program off to its best conference start in 125 years, envisions even bigger things for his squad.
"No one is comfortable with this just being a series win," Hughes said. "We've got to keep winning games so we can change our perception out there and keep building our national tournament resume. And I want to host. I want to host. Imagine hosting here? It's a heck of a homefield advantage. We don't lose at home. I want to host.
"We're in a situation where we can do that right now with a lot of baseball left, but you know what? I'll never back off that being our goal right now."
K-State is 19-8 overall and sits atop the Big 12 Conference standings at 8-1. The Wildcats began the season with wins over No. 5 Arkansas, No. 25 Michigan and No. 22 TCU away from home, and are currently 10-0 at Tointon, while winning 15 of their last 18 contests.
As of Monday, K-State ranked No. 25 in the RPI and boasted the second-most neutral-site wins (six) in the group.
Additionally, K-State debuted at No. 22 in the D1Baseball Top 25 Poll on Monday. The Wildcats had been the only team to lead a Power 4 Conference in the standings and not be nationally ranked — a fact not lost on Hughes.
"I think people are having a hard time to say that Kansas State might be a national baseball program," Hughes said. "People are so reluctant to say that. Our guys? Every day we say it: 'You're either going to prove them right, or you're going to prove them wrong.'"
K-State's 19-8 start matches the record by a Wildcat team that last season advanced to a Super Regional.
"The potential is through the roof," said graduate transfer catcher Keegan O'Connor, who led K-State during the Texas Tech series with a .455 average (5-for-11), and finished Sunday's win 2-for-3 with a double and his second home run of the series. "We just keep plugging away, keep playing our game."
The Wildcats are doing so with almost an entirely new roster, bringing in 26 new players following the departure of several key players to the MLB Draft. It's a remarkable feat and one that might receive more national attention as the season wears on and the wins continue to pile up.
K-State entered the season with a core group of leaders in Nick English, Kyan Lodice, Ty Ruhl and David Bishop, who from the outset instilled the program's culture into the new locker room.
The culture has continued to grow.
"Lot of news guys coming from a lot of different areas of the country and different programs," Hughes said, "but our core guys and our culture is strong enough to take on new personalities from different places and all those kids have adapted to our culture.
"It's as tight-knit group of guys as I've been around."
K-State's top four batters — Maximus Martin (.413), AJ Evasco (.377), O'Connor (.348), Seth Dardar (.338) — and seven of its top eight — Dee Kennedy (.315), Bear Madliak (.307) and Shintaro Inoue (.265) — weren't on roster last season.
"Guys from day one have put in work," said O'Connor, who transferred from Quinnipiac. "We have a really deep team. You can see it. One guy has a tough game, and another guy will pick you up. It's been great."
When K-State needed somebody to step up against Texas Tech on Sunday, Sam Flores, a junior transfer from McClennan Community College, made his presence felt. Flores, who entered the game with 14 at-bats this season, came through. Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Madliak doubled to right field before a hit by pitch and clutch RBI-single from Flores brought the game to within one run.
"We have 26 new players," Hughes said. "That tells you how strong our culture is, and they're really talented. We lost a ton from that Super Regional team. And all those guys are new to our program, so it speaks volumes to our recruiting coordinator Ryan Connolly and (coaching staff) Austin Wates, Rudy Darrow and Thomas Hughes. Those guys put together that roster, you know? And it's really hard to do that these days in college baseball where you're not the sexiest guy on the block anymore — in the recruiting market, we're not — but our guys can really evaluate, and our coaching staff can really coach.
"We didn't miss on portal guys. It fit our culture and our system and our wants and needs. It starts with our culture and our coaching staff and Ryan Connolly putting that roster together so we can have sustained success."
Down the stretch of Sunday's victory over Texas Tech — its first sweep over the Red Raiders since 2013 — the Wildcats relied on its veteran pitchers in redshirt senior Ty Ruhl and graduate JJ Slack. Ruhl has been at K-State throughout his career while Slack is in his second season with the program.
K-State utilized five pitchers in the win with Ruhl and Slack combining for 5 1/3 shutout innings in relief. Slack was awarded his first win of the season after striking out five of the seven batters he faced. The left-hander issued one walk before he struck out the side in the ninth, building momentum heading into the ninth.
"You get out of a bases-loaded situation with no outs, if you damage-control that situation you give up one run, and we went to Ty Ruhl, who comes in gets one strikeout, one line drive to third, and then the ground ball to third," Hughes said. "That's a huge turning point in the game. And then JJ Slack coming in with first and second and no outs, and he completely damage controlled that inning for no runs. Two great jobs by our two senior bullpen guys."
Sitting inside Tointon and watching the victories unfold as a fan is one thing, watching it from the dugout is assuredly a different experience. As the wins continue to rack up, even Hughes took a moment to marvel at the feats of his squad, which shows no signs of slowing.
"Really good weekend for our program," he said. "I love seeing our kids play at a high level in high-pressure situations. It's the greatest thing a coach can do is watch that. It means they're prepared, and they have confidence in their preparation. They have a strong foundation.
"That was awesome."
And now comes a Wednesday road date at Wichita State, 10-17, followed by a three-game series at Oklahoma State, 12-13 and 1-6 Big 12, starting Friday.
"Great," Hughes said. "Four opportunities to improve our RPI. That's how we approach it."
Judging by the national polls Monday, K-State is finally getting a little bit of the national attention that it deserves.
And it seems that K-State's stock might only continue to rise.
Sitting inside the Kansas State coaches meeting room in the aftermath of the Wildcats' latest victory — a walk-off single for a 5-4 win to sweep Texas Tech on Sunday at Tointon Family Stadium — head coach Pete Hughes, who has his program off to its best conference start in 125 years, envisions even bigger things for his squad.
"No one is comfortable with this just being a series win," Hughes said. "We've got to keep winning games so we can change our perception out there and keep building our national tournament resume. And I want to host. I want to host. Imagine hosting here? It's a heck of a homefield advantage. We don't lose at home. I want to host.
"We're in a situation where we can do that right now with a lot of baseball left, but you know what? I'll never back off that being our goal right now."
K-State is 19-8 overall and sits atop the Big 12 Conference standings at 8-1. The Wildcats began the season with wins over No. 5 Arkansas, No. 25 Michigan and No. 22 TCU away from home, and are currently 10-0 at Tointon, while winning 15 of their last 18 contests.
As of Monday, K-State ranked No. 25 in the RPI and boasted the second-most neutral-site wins (six) in the group.
Additionally, K-State debuted at No. 22 in the D1Baseball Top 25 Poll on Monday. The Wildcats had been the only team to lead a Power 4 Conference in the standings and not be nationally ranked — a fact not lost on Hughes.
"I think people are having a hard time to say that Kansas State might be a national baseball program," Hughes said. "People are so reluctant to say that. Our guys? Every day we say it: 'You're either going to prove them right, or you're going to prove them wrong.'"
K-State's 19-8 start matches the record by a Wildcat team that last season advanced to a Super Regional.
"The potential is through the roof," said graduate transfer catcher Keegan O'Connor, who led K-State during the Texas Tech series with a .455 average (5-for-11), and finished Sunday's win 2-for-3 with a double and his second home run of the series. "We just keep plugging away, keep playing our game."
The Wildcats are doing so with almost an entirely new roster, bringing in 26 new players following the departure of several key players to the MLB Draft. It's a remarkable feat and one that might receive more national attention as the season wears on and the wins continue to pile up.
K-State entered the season with a core group of leaders in Nick English, Kyan Lodice, Ty Ruhl and David Bishop, who from the outset instilled the program's culture into the new locker room.
The culture has continued to grow.
"Lot of news guys coming from a lot of different areas of the country and different programs," Hughes said, "but our core guys and our culture is strong enough to take on new personalities from different places and all those kids have adapted to our culture.
"It's as tight-knit group of guys as I've been around."
K-State's top four batters — Maximus Martin (.413), AJ Evasco (.377), O'Connor (.348), Seth Dardar (.338) — and seven of its top eight — Dee Kennedy (.315), Bear Madliak (.307) and Shintaro Inoue (.265) — weren't on roster last season.
"Guys from day one have put in work," said O'Connor, who transferred from Quinnipiac. "We have a really deep team. You can see it. One guy has a tough game, and another guy will pick you up. It's been great."
When K-State needed somebody to step up against Texas Tech on Sunday, Sam Flores, a junior transfer from McClennan Community College, made his presence felt. Flores, who entered the game with 14 at-bats this season, came through. Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Madliak doubled to right field before a hit by pitch and clutch RBI-single from Flores brought the game to within one run.
"We have 26 new players," Hughes said. "That tells you how strong our culture is, and they're really talented. We lost a ton from that Super Regional team. And all those guys are new to our program, so it speaks volumes to our recruiting coordinator Ryan Connolly and (coaching staff) Austin Wates, Rudy Darrow and Thomas Hughes. Those guys put together that roster, you know? And it's really hard to do that these days in college baseball where you're not the sexiest guy on the block anymore — in the recruiting market, we're not — but our guys can really evaluate, and our coaching staff can really coach.
"We didn't miss on portal guys. It fit our culture and our system and our wants and needs. It starts with our culture and our coaching staff and Ryan Connolly putting that roster together so we can have sustained success."
Down the stretch of Sunday's victory over Texas Tech — its first sweep over the Red Raiders since 2013 — the Wildcats relied on its veteran pitchers in redshirt senior Ty Ruhl and graduate JJ Slack. Ruhl has been at K-State throughout his career while Slack is in his second season with the program.
K-State utilized five pitchers in the win with Ruhl and Slack combining for 5 1/3 shutout innings in relief. Slack was awarded his first win of the season after striking out five of the seven batters he faced. The left-hander issued one walk before he struck out the side in the ninth, building momentum heading into the ninth.
"You get out of a bases-loaded situation with no outs, if you damage-control that situation you give up one run, and we went to Ty Ruhl, who comes in gets one strikeout, one line drive to third, and then the ground ball to third," Hughes said. "That's a huge turning point in the game. And then JJ Slack coming in with first and second and no outs, and he completely damage controlled that inning for no runs. Two great jobs by our two senior bullpen guys."
Sitting inside Tointon and watching the victories unfold as a fan is one thing, watching it from the dugout is assuredly a different experience. As the wins continue to rack up, even Hughes took a moment to marvel at the feats of his squad, which shows no signs of slowing.
"Really good weekend for our program," he said. "I love seeing our kids play at a high level in high-pressure situations. It's the greatest thing a coach can do is watch that. It means they're prepared, and they have confidence in their preparation. They have a strong foundation.
"That was awesome."
And now comes a Wednesday road date at Wichita State, 10-17, followed by a three-game series at Oklahoma State, 12-13 and 1-6 Big 12, starting Friday.
"Great," Hughes said. "Four opportunities to improve our RPI. That's how we approach it."
Judging by the national polls Monday, K-State is finally getting a little bit of the national attention that it deserves.
And it seems that K-State's stock might only continue to rise.
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