K-State drew first blood before Cal Poly rallied for a 5-2 victory on Saturday night in San Luis Obispo, CA. The Cats scored their first run of the season in the top of the fourth inning with a pair of infield singles from Shane Conlon and Tanner Devinny to lead 1-0. The Mustangs countered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth for the second straight night, with an RBI single by Jimmy Allen, plus a sacrifice fly and a bases loaded hit by pitch for a 3-1 edge. Two more Cal Poly runs were added in the bottom of the eighth on both a run scoring double by Peter Van Gansen and single by Jordan Ellis. The Cats would finally break thru for another run in the top of the ninth on an RBI double by junior college transfer Max Brown.
Nick Torres led Cal Poly with four hits, Ellis had three, and Allen added a pair. K-State came up with five hits including those from Austin Fisher and Lance Miles.
Jared Moore (0-1) started the game with five scoreless innings, but ran into trouble in the sixth, and wound up surrendering three earned runs on eight hits, a walk with four strikeouts in five and a third innings of work. Left handed freshman pitcher Slater Lee (1-0) took the win in his first career start for the Mustangs, going six and a third innings, with two hits, an earned run, seven strikeouts, and a walk. Reid Reilly struck out Blair Debord to end the game for his second save in as many nights.
K-State baseball now will try to salvage the series at Cal Poly on Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm central time. The BD4 Distributing/Cary Company pregame show begins at 2:30 on NewsRadio 1350 KMAN.
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