K-State Suffers First Home Loss of the Season

MANHATTAN, Kan. – UCF handed K-State its first home loss of the season, as the Knights used the help of a five-run first inning to defeat the Wildcats, 15-3, in the series opener at Tointon Family Stadium.

UCF (19-14, 4-9 Big 12) exploded for five runs in the opening frame, led by a three-run homer from Antonio Jimenez. The Knights ended the night with 20 hits, that included seven players recording multi-hit efforts. Left fielder Chase Krewson went 5-for-5 with three RBI, while Jimenez finished with a game-high four RBI.

"Obviously a disappointing night," head coach Pete Hughes commented. "It's Friday night, a great crowd was there tonight, and we played poorly. Credit UCF for coming out and swinging the bats."

"The key thing you want to do when you're on the road and you're playing in a field where there's a home field advantage, you have to try to take the crowd out of the game immediately, and they did that," Hughes added.

Right-hander Angelo Smith (1-1) was credited with the victory in relief of starter Camden Wicker, who surrendered three earned runs on six hits. Smith scattered three hits across four scoreless innings.

"We got a poor start from Jacob Frost, and he is a kid who's been unbelievably consistent for us and has been a rock of our pitching staff. So, I will never be down on Jacob. He pitched his best outing of the year for us in Stillwater last weekend, and he's been unbelievable. So sometimes you have a bad start and sometimes your opponent factors into you having a bad start."

Frost (0-2), who earned his eighth straight start on the hill, suffered the loss after giving up five earned runs on four hits with two walks in the first.

"Our kids are really resilient – they're tough kids. I've seen them come back and get in series after games like this, and you try not to look too deep into it. You wake up tomorrow and try to figure out a way to get back in the series."

Offensively, the Wildcats (21-12, 8-5 Big 12) registered 11 hits with four players hitting multiple. In his first game back from injury, Seth Dardar went 2-for-3 with a double and home run – the Cats' 59^th of the year.

HOW IT HAPPENED
UCF quickly jumped on board in the first, spotting Frost for five runs on four hits. Right-hander Ty Ruhl took over for Frost and inherited a runner on first. He struck out the first batter he faced looking before catcher Bear Madliak gunned down the runner at second to get out of the inning.

With two outs in the bottom of the frame, Madliak lined a shot back to the mound to register the Cats' first hit of the night. Dardar immediately followed with his sixth homer of the year, sending the two-run blast 400-feet over the wall in right center to make it a 5-2 ball game.

Behind a 1-2-3 inning from Ruhl, K-State strung together four consecutive hits led by back-to-back doubles by Sam Flores and Maximus Martin to cut the gap to two.

UCF responded with 10 unanswered runs to put the game away.

INSIDE THE BOX

K-State scored three runs on 11 hits with no errors committed and three runners left on base.
UCF scored 15 runs on 20 hits, committed no errors, and stranded 14 on base.
Seven different Wildcats produced a hit, with four hitting multiple.
Dardar went 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored in his first game back since March 30.
Six pitchers made an appearance in the loss for K-State.
Krewson went 5-for-5 with three RBI while Jimenez drove in a game-high four RBI.
Smith earned the victory in relief, scattering three hits in four scoreless innings (1-1).
Frost (0-2) suffered the loss after surrendering five runs (all earned) in the first inning.

TEAM NOTES

K-State suffered its first loss of the season, snapping an 11-game winning streak at Tointon Family Stadium.
UCF leads the all-time series 3-1, while Friday marked the first game played in the Manhattan between the two squads.
Martin turned in his 13^th game with two or more hits.
Dardar hit his sixth homer of the year – team's 59^th.

UP NEXT
The middle game is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Tointon Family Stadium on Saturday. The entire Big 12 series can be seen on ESPN+ and the ESPN app, while radio coverage is available on KMAN. A free live audio can be found for all K-State baseball games at kstatesports.com/watch.

K-State baseball single-game tickets are available, and can be purchased by visiting KStateSports.com, call 1-800-221-CATS (2287), or stopping by the K-State Athletics Ticket Office in Bramlage Coliseum.

– k-statesports.com –

How to follow the Cats: For complete information on K-State Baseball, visit www.kstatesports.com and follow the team's social media channels on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.

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Team Stats

Seth Dardar

Sam Flores

Maximus Martin

Shintaro Inoue

Players Mentioned

Seth Dardar

Sam Flores

Jacob Frost

Bear Madliak

Maximus Martin

Ty Ruhl

Players Mentioned

Seth Dardar

Sam Flores

Jacob Frost

Bear Madliak

Maximus Martin

Ty Ruhl

Kansas State University Athletics