By Chris Kutz, K-State Athletics Communications
(Photo Courtesy Kansas State Athletics)
WACO, Texas – The K-State baseball team bounced back from a 4-1 loss in a suspended first game of the series at Baylor by beating the Bears, 5-3, to even the set on Saturday at Baylor Ballpark. The win was K-State head coach Brad Hill’s 800th career win at the Division I and II levels.
With Friday’s suspended game resuming on Saturday, the Wildcats (19-22, 6-11 Big 12) were held without a hit in the final three innings of game one before breaking out for 15 in game two, which was their most hits in a road game all season.
The win for the Wildcats was their first in the middle game of a Big 12 series all season. K-State will look to win its second conference series of the year when it takes on Baylor in the rubber match on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Game One
K-State surrendered four two-out runs in the suspended first game, leading to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Baylor in the series opener.
All five runs in the game were scored with two outs, as Steve Serratore had an RBI double in the sixth that cut the Baylor lead to 3-1, but the Bears used two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to build an insurmountable lead. Baylor’s Matt Menard struck first with a two-out, two-run triple in the fourth off K-State starting pitcher Colton Kalmus before an RBI single in the fifth by Adam Toth off K-State reliever Jordan Floyd made it 3-0.
The Wildcats, who took until the fifth inning to register their first hit off Baylor starting pitcher Drew Tolson, seemed to gather momentum after the first four innings. K-State registered all six of its hits from the fifth through seventh innings, including back-to-back singles by Alex Bee and Sam Chadick to start the seventh.
Despite the Wildcats staging a threat in the seventh, lightning and looming rain forced officials to stop the game with no outs in the seventh. Once play resumed on Saturday afternoon, the Wildcats managed to load the bases after Carter Yagi was hit by pitch after a failed sacrifice bunt attempt by Clayton Dalrymple resulted in a fielder’s choice. The Wildcats were unable to chip away at the two-run disadvantage, though, as Tyler Wolfe and Shane Conlon were struck out to end the inning by Sean Spicer, who started the resumed game out of the bullpen.
Following Baylor’s seventh-inning escape, the Bears plated a run in the bottom half of the frame when Toth stru
again for another two-out RBI single off Lucas Benenati. Benenati, who relieved Floyd to start the seventh, got the first two batters out of the inning with a fly out and strikeout, but a single up the middle under the glove of Wolfe prolonged the inning. The single, hit by Logan Brown, was the first of three consecutive hits allowed by Benenati in the inning.
K-State starting pitcher Colton Kalmus took the loss, his third of the season, after allowing three earned runs on five hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings.
Spicer went on to throw three no-hit scoreless innings for Baylor to earn his team-best fifth save of the season. The right-hander allowed only one hitter to reach, which was Yagi’s hit by pitch in the seventh.
Tolson started the seventh inning on Friday night, surrendering the back-to-back singles to start the frame, but still went on to earn the win, his third of the season. The right-hander scattered six hits and two walks in six-plus innings while striking out one.
Bee and Chadick combined for four of K-State’s six hits as both Wildcats went 2-for-4. It was Chadick’s first career multi-hit game while it was Bee’s second consecutive two-hit game.
Game Two
Tallying 15 hits, its most in a road game this season, K-State evened the series at Baylor with a 5-3 win in the middle game of the series.
Five different Wildcats helped K-State register its most hits in a road game since May 6, 2014 at Wichita State, led by three apiece from Shane Conlon and Tyler Wolfe. Alex Bee, Sam Chadick and Tyler Moore also had multi-hit efforts with hits each.
“The ball started to get back to the middle of the field and the other side of the field,” said K-State head coach Brad Hill about the breakout in hits. “That’s what we have been asking the guys to do, and so many guys have been out front and trying to pull. It just hasn’t created a lot of success. Today, it was more of an approach thing where guys adjusted.”
Of the 15 hits, the game-deciding one was provided by Danny Krause, who dropped in a two-out RBI single into left field in the eighth inning to break up a tie game and make it 4-3 K-State. The hit by Krause snapped a 0-for-19 stretch, which included going hitless in his first three at-bats of the game.
K-State reliever Corey Fischer earned his first win since April 2 vs. West Virginia by throwing 3 1/3 shutout innings and allowing just one hit. The right-hander spelled starting pitcher Nate Griep in the sixth, inheriting a runner on first and second with two outs, but beginning with the final out in the sixth, he went on to retire seven straight Bears. Fischer now has a 0.68 ERA in eight relief appearances.
“(Fischer) was big,” said Hill. “Nate kept us in it – he gave us an opportunity, but we had to have one more guy, obviously, with Nate coming out in a tie game. Fischer was outstanding. It is nice to have a guy like that come out of the bullpen, go three innings and put a stop up there.”
Griep did not factor into the decision after he surrendered three runs, two earned, on seven hits and one walk in 5 2/3 innings. Making a start in back-to-back weekends for the first time since mid-March, Griep allowed the game-tying run in the third and two runs in the sixth. In the third, Griep surrendered a single to Logan Brown, who came around to score after Griep made two throwing errors on pickoff attempts at first and second and then threw a wild pitch to allow Brown to score from third. In the sixth, after he retired seven consecutive Bears, Griep allowed three hits among the five batters he faced. Adam Toth hit an RBI triple to cut the Wildcats’ lead to one before two batters later, Duncan Wendel, hit a two-out RBI single to score Toth and even the game at 3-3.
The Wildcats plated at least one run off each of the four Baylor pitchers used in the game. The Wildcats scored the game’s first run in the third on a run-producing fielder’s choice hit by Shane Conlon off starter Nick Lewis. K-State added another run off Lewis in the fourth with a two-out double by Moore that drove in Steve Serratore to make it 2-1 K-State.
In the sixth, Bee recorded the first of his two hits with a single to precede Moore’s second double that put runners at second and third for Sam Chadick against Troy Montemayor. The freshman Chadick promptly hit a sacrifice fly to shallow right field to record his third RBI in the last three games and make it 3-1 Wildcats.
The Wildcats were able to add an insurance run in the ninth when Conlon and Max Brown opened the frame with a single and double, respectively. Two batters later, Bee hit a single up the middle that plated Conlon and brought the score to 5-3 K-State. Brown also attempted to score on Bee’s hit, but the senior was thrown out at home on an assist by Baylor’s Brown in centerfield.
Joe Kirkland, who allowed Krause’s single in the eighth, took the loss. The senior finished the game with four hits and one run allowed in two innings pitched.
