Lodice Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye
Feb 06, 2026 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
The young boy and his father waited in a long line that snaked around Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium just after sunlight kissed the asphalt on a crisp June morning in Omaha, Nebraska. This was the tradition for Mike Lodice and his son, Kyan, who lived minutes away, and who made the annual pilgrimage to the dusty mecca that began with hotdogs and sodas and ended with sunburn and memories — the College Baseball World Series. Yes, they had done this for years. Everyone in town waited three or four hours until the gates opened and then sprinted to the best seats in general admission. But on this particular day, after watching the fans in front of them slowly enter the gates and file into the stadium, Mike and Kyan, with a mile of people standing behind them, were stopped by a stadium attendant.
They were told that they could not enter. Not today.
There was no more room inside the stadium.
That day, Mike and Kyan were the first ones denied into the College World Series.
"I bawled all the way back home," Kyan says, sitting inside Tointon Family Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. "You had to go. We went every year. Everyone from our hometown went to the games. Those are memories I'll never forget with my dad — just me and my dad. Mom watched the games on TV, but we loved watching the games in person."
About an hour ago, Lodice sat in a purple pullover as one of four Kansas State baseball players selected to address reporters at the team's annual media day event downstairs inside the team meeting room. Now Lodice occupies a barstool and places his hands on the edges of a small circle table across from a visitor inside the spacious club that overlooks the third base line on the field below. And wearing a studious grin, the pride of Millard West High School and recent K-State graduate in kinesiology with a financial certificate, begins to tell more stories.
At 22 years old, Lodice has seen plenty since he shook hands with K-State head coach Pete Hughes for the first time — what was it? Six? Seven? Eight years ago? The years along the journey become jumbled, but Lodice remembers that first time he saw K-State associate head coach Austin Wates filming him during a game in Georgia as Lodice played on the Nebraska Prospects travel baseball team, and he remembers his unofficial visit to K-State his sophomore year at Millard West High School, and the scholarship offer to play for Hughes, and he chuckles at the recollection of his youth, back when he played NCAA Football on Xbox 360, and delivers a stunning statement.
"I played Xbox 360 and knew K-State had a good football team," he says, "but I didn't know K-State had a baseball team. At Nebraska, the dream is to play at Nebraska, but things didn't work out. On my unofficial visit to K-State, I was like, 'I don't want to go anywhere else.'
"K-State was my only offer. I committed the next day."
And now here he is, the heartbeat of the Wildcats, the fifth-year senior, the King of K-State Culture, sitting in the club, now folding his arms, wearing a smile, telling a tale of perseverance — revealing the raw details of his health, his biggest opponent.
"I've had almost every single injury you can think of," he says. "It's tough coming back from those."
His freshman season, he had two stress fractures in his back. The next season, a sprained MCL with collateral damage everywhere. Then he suffered a stress fracture in his left shin that left him on crutches for several months. Heartbreak City struck again last season. Understand, Lodice was off to the best start of his career. He was hitting .276 with four doubles, two home runs and seven RBI, had a .439 slugging percentage and a .439 on-base percentage. He also had eight stolen bases on 14 attempts. Then, in his 28th game of the season, the unthinkable happened again.
"Tore my left thumb," he says. "I was off to a really good start, too. I slid headfirst into second base and my left thumb bent completely back."
Then came decision time.
"The injuries, they're physically and mentally draining," he says. "I walked into Coach's office at the end of the season and he asked, 'What are you going to do?' I said, 'I'm all in.' People wondered if I'd come back for a fifth year. To be honest, I didn't know. Last season was a huge setback for me."
But he wasn't ready to say goodbye. He spent his redshirt freshman season in 2022 watching K-State finish 29-29 overall. But since then, it's been all 30-win seasons — 35-24 in 2023, 35-26 in 2024 with a Super Regional appearance, and then 32-26 with a school-record 17 conference victories and a second consecutive NCAA Regional.
And now he's back. Hughes wouldn't have it any other way.
"We first evaluated Kyan in 1985," Hughes says with a grin. "Kyan is the elder statesman of this team. His fingerprints are all over the growth of this program. He was there at the beginning when we were trying to transform a losing culture into a winning one. You have to have strong people maintaining your message of how to do things the right way as a Kansas State baseball player. It doesn't work if you don't have guys like this, who re-emphasize the message every day to their peer group.
"He knows our offense and program as well as anybody. He talks to the guys, preparing to go to Omaha, and he's coaching like crazy out there every day. That's invaluable, what he brings to our program."
Practice begins at 1:45 p.m. These days, as K-State prepares for opening day against Iowa next Friday in the MLB Desert Invitational in Goodyear, Arizona, scrimmages at Tointon Family Stadium last for about four hours, but before that, there's treatment, and Lodice, with his history, never misses it, smoothing out the kinks before taking the field.
"It's a long day, especially with lifting before practice," he says. "It's a real job. It's eight or nine hours every single day on the field with a four-hour practice. The other four hours I spend watching film clips and talking with Coach Wates about my swing. I've changed some things on my swing. We also have VR training headsets so I can put different pitchers on the mound to see their windups and pitches."
Currently, Lodice is playing corner outfield, left and right field, and could play a little bit of center field.
"We look for him to be a super-productive guy who can get on base, hit home runs, steal bases, and he does it with a chip on his shoulder and as a competitive spirit," Hughes says. "He's the absolute quintessential Kansas State baseball player."
Lodice reciprocates the praise.
"The coaches gave me an opportunity to come here and play the game I grew up loving," he says. "Without them, I don't know if I'd be playing college baseball. The coaches understand I'm a valuable person to have in the clubhouse in building the culture. I've done the best I can with that. I need to have more success on the field, but I'm a pretty good position."
Lodice's loyalty isn't lost on the national experts.
"In this transfer portal era, it's refreshing to see a guy with Kyan Lodice's toolset preserver at one program through struggles and uneven playing time," D1Baseball writes.
Lodice grins.
"I get asked that question all the time — 'Is this the place you want to be at?'" Lodice says. "I tell them, 'I don't want to be anywhere else.' Loyalty is something my parents taught me. Not getting playing time right away is a part of life. I don't like the transfer portal at all with guys transferring to play. You need development and learn from older guys. I'm an older guy now because I've learned from people who came here. Going through a tough time? I know how to bounce back. Without that, that's something I wouldn't have learned had I transferred somewhere else. The relationships with coaches and teammates are true, and I have these relationships forever because I've been here forever.
"It's as real as it gets. I've loved everything about it."
And now the final season of Lodice's career nears. Opening day holds a special spot in his heart.
"Year one, we opened up in Globe Life, and when you walk onto the field for an opener, it's like, 'We're playing ball again.' And you get tingles. It's always the same feeling that first game. When the first pitch is thrown, it all goes away, but that first day, yeah, even the night before when you're trying to sleep, it's impossible.
"I tell you what, I'm ready to get down to some warmer weather in Arizona, for sure. I'm ready to go. I know this is my last go around, so I have nothing to lose. I'm ready to leave it all on the table. I'm pumped to get things going. Once it gets going, it's going to go fast. I'm trying to savor each day and each practice."
The theme of K-State baseball media day was largely the Wildcats playing the season with a collective chip on the shoulder — a program still scraping and fighting for national respect. Lodice remembers the path quite well.
"The greatest memory at K-State is playing the Super Regional at Virginia, and then beating Arkansas at their place. That was sweet," Lodice says. "We've had a couple games here, where we've come back in the eighth or ninth inning and walked it off. I had a walk-off against BYU to win the series my junior year, and then I had a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth against Cincinnati.
"But yeah, being on the Super Regional and Regional teams, you dream of stuff like that as a kid."
Lodice remembers baseball as a kid. He remembers the roars of the crowds at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, the fun sitting with his father, enjoying some college baseball on a sunny summer day.
"My end goal this season," Lodice says, "is to play in front of my family and friends in Omaha."
All these years later, Kyan and Mike could find themselves in Omaha once again. With Mike in the stands. And Kyan on the field. At the College Baseball World Series.
The young boy and his father waited in a long line that snaked around Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium just after sunlight kissed the asphalt on a crisp June morning in Omaha, Nebraska. This was the tradition for Mike Lodice and his son, Kyan, who lived minutes away, and who made the annual pilgrimage to the dusty mecca that began with hotdogs and sodas and ended with sunburn and memories — the College Baseball World Series. Yes, they had done this for years. Everyone in town waited three or four hours until the gates opened and then sprinted to the best seats in general admission. But on this particular day, after watching the fans in front of them slowly enter the gates and file into the stadium, Mike and Kyan, with a mile of people standing behind them, were stopped by a stadium attendant.
They were told that they could not enter. Not today.
There was no more room inside the stadium.
That day, Mike and Kyan were the first ones denied into the College World Series.
"I bawled all the way back home," Kyan says, sitting inside Tointon Family Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. "You had to go. We went every year. Everyone from our hometown went to the games. Those are memories I'll never forget with my dad — just me and my dad. Mom watched the games on TV, but we loved watching the games in person."
About an hour ago, Lodice sat in a purple pullover as one of four Kansas State baseball players selected to address reporters at the team's annual media day event downstairs inside the team meeting room. Now Lodice occupies a barstool and places his hands on the edges of a small circle table across from a visitor inside the spacious club that overlooks the third base line on the field below. And wearing a studious grin, the pride of Millard West High School and recent K-State graduate in kinesiology with a financial certificate, begins to tell more stories.
At 22 years old, Lodice has seen plenty since he shook hands with K-State head coach Pete Hughes for the first time — what was it? Six? Seven? Eight years ago? The years along the journey become jumbled, but Lodice remembers that first time he saw K-State associate head coach Austin Wates filming him during a game in Georgia as Lodice played on the Nebraska Prospects travel baseball team, and he remembers his unofficial visit to K-State his sophomore year at Millard West High School, and the scholarship offer to play for Hughes, and he chuckles at the recollection of his youth, back when he played NCAA Football on Xbox 360, and delivers a stunning statement.
"I played Xbox 360 and knew K-State had a good football team," he says, "but I didn't know K-State had a baseball team. At Nebraska, the dream is to play at Nebraska, but things didn't work out. On my unofficial visit to K-State, I was like, 'I don't want to go anywhere else.'
"K-State was my only offer. I committed the next day."
And now here he is, the heartbeat of the Wildcats, the fifth-year senior, the King of K-State Culture, sitting in the club, now folding his arms, wearing a smile, telling a tale of perseverance — revealing the raw details of his health, his biggest opponent.
"I've had almost every single injury you can think of," he says. "It's tough coming back from those."
His freshman season, he had two stress fractures in his back. The next season, a sprained MCL with collateral damage everywhere. Then he suffered a stress fracture in his left shin that left him on crutches for several months. Heartbreak City struck again last season. Understand, Lodice was off to the best start of his career. He was hitting .276 with four doubles, two home runs and seven RBI, had a .439 slugging percentage and a .439 on-base percentage. He also had eight stolen bases on 14 attempts. Then, in his 28th game of the season, the unthinkable happened again.
"Tore my left thumb," he says. "I was off to a really good start, too. I slid headfirst into second base and my left thumb bent completely back."
Then came decision time.
"The injuries, they're physically and mentally draining," he says. "I walked into Coach's office at the end of the season and he asked, 'What are you going to do?' I said, 'I'm all in.' People wondered if I'd come back for a fifth year. To be honest, I didn't know. Last season was a huge setback for me."
But he wasn't ready to say goodbye. He spent his redshirt freshman season in 2022 watching K-State finish 29-29 overall. But since then, it's been all 30-win seasons — 35-24 in 2023, 35-26 in 2024 with a Super Regional appearance, and then 32-26 with a school-record 17 conference victories and a second consecutive NCAA Regional.
And now he's back. Hughes wouldn't have it any other way.
"We first evaluated Kyan in 1985," Hughes says with a grin. "Kyan is the elder statesman of this team. His fingerprints are all over the growth of this program. He was there at the beginning when we were trying to transform a losing culture into a winning one. You have to have strong people maintaining your message of how to do things the right way as a Kansas State baseball player. It doesn't work if you don't have guys like this, who re-emphasize the message every day to their peer group.
"He knows our offense and program as well as anybody. He talks to the guys, preparing to go to Omaha, and he's coaching like crazy out there every day. That's invaluable, what he brings to our program."
Practice begins at 1:45 p.m. These days, as K-State prepares for opening day against Iowa next Friday in the MLB Desert Invitational in Goodyear, Arizona, scrimmages at Tointon Family Stadium last for about four hours, but before that, there's treatment, and Lodice, with his history, never misses it, smoothing out the kinks before taking the field.
"It's a long day, especially with lifting before practice," he says. "It's a real job. It's eight or nine hours every single day on the field with a four-hour practice. The other four hours I spend watching film clips and talking with Coach Wates about my swing. I've changed some things on my swing. We also have VR training headsets so I can put different pitchers on the mound to see their windups and pitches."
Currently, Lodice is playing corner outfield, left and right field, and could play a little bit of center field.
"We look for him to be a super-productive guy who can get on base, hit home runs, steal bases, and he does it with a chip on his shoulder and as a competitive spirit," Hughes says. "He's the absolute quintessential Kansas State baseball player."
Lodice reciprocates the praise.
"The coaches gave me an opportunity to come here and play the game I grew up loving," he says. "Without them, I don't know if I'd be playing college baseball. The coaches understand I'm a valuable person to have in the clubhouse in building the culture. I've done the best I can with that. I need to have more success on the field, but I'm a pretty good position."
Lodice's loyalty isn't lost on the national experts.
"In this transfer portal era, it's refreshing to see a guy with Kyan Lodice's toolset preserver at one program through struggles and uneven playing time," D1Baseball writes.
Lodice grins.
"I get asked that question all the time — 'Is this the place you want to be at?'" Lodice says. "I tell them, 'I don't want to be anywhere else.' Loyalty is something my parents taught me. Not getting playing time right away is a part of life. I don't like the transfer portal at all with guys transferring to play. You need development and learn from older guys. I'm an older guy now because I've learned from people who came here. Going through a tough time? I know how to bounce back. Without that, that's something I wouldn't have learned had I transferred somewhere else. The relationships with coaches and teammates are true, and I have these relationships forever because I've been here forever.
"It's as real as it gets. I've loved everything about it."
And now the final season of Lodice's career nears. Opening day holds a special spot in his heart.
"Year one, we opened up in Globe Life, and when you walk onto the field for an opener, it's like, 'We're playing ball again.' And you get tingles. It's always the same feeling that first game. When the first pitch is thrown, it all goes away, but that first day, yeah, even the night before when you're trying to sleep, it's impossible.
"I tell you what, I'm ready to get down to some warmer weather in Arizona, for sure. I'm ready to go. I know this is my last go around, so I have nothing to lose. I'm ready to leave it all on the table. I'm pumped to get things going. Once it gets going, it's going to go fast. I'm trying to savor each day and each practice."
The theme of K-State baseball media day was largely the Wildcats playing the season with a collective chip on the shoulder — a program still scraping and fighting for national respect. Lodice remembers the path quite well.
"The greatest memory at K-State is playing the Super Regional at Virginia, and then beating Arkansas at their place. That was sweet," Lodice says. "We've had a couple games here, where we've come back in the eighth or ninth inning and walked it off. I had a walk-off against BYU to win the series my junior year, and then I had a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth against Cincinnati.
"But yeah, being on the Super Regional and Regional teams, you dream of stuff like that as a kid."
Lodice remembers baseball as a kid. He remembers the roars of the crowds at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, the fun sitting with his father, enjoying some college baseball on a sunny summer day.
"My end goal this season," Lodice says, "is to play in front of my family and friends in Omaha."
All these years later, Kyan and Mike could find themselves in Omaha once again. With Mike in the stands. And Kyan on the field. At the College Baseball World Series.
Players Mentioned
INF/OF
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