ARLINGTON, Texas (Kansas State Athletics) – The K-State offense managed just three hits, while Auburn totaled 13 in the Tigers’ 12-1 victory Sunday at Globe Life Field on the final day of the State Farm College Baseball Showdown.
Auburn (2-1) scored 11 unanswered runs, with 10 coming over a three-inning stretch (third to fifth). The Wildcats (0-3) were hampered by eight walks along with eight hit-by-pitches.
“Disappointing weekend, disappointing day,” said head coach Pete Hughes. “You expect to make first-weekend mistakes, but you can’t have first-weekend overall performances and excuses everywhere. I thought we probably played 10 good innings of baseball (this weekend), which isn’t going to cut it.
“We’ve got a lot to work on, we know that. It’s correctable. We have the talent; we just have to perform better and we have to execute better.”
Nick Goodwin’s two-out RBI single in the first inning tied the game, scoring leadoff hitter Dominic Johnson who began the game with a single. K-State was then held hitless until Raphael Pelletier singled to lead off the eighth inning. It marked Pelletier’s first career hit, as the redshirt freshman earned his first start behind the plate.
The Tigers loaded the bases in five of the game’s first six innings. Wildcat starter Collin Rothermel worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the first and escaped with just a single run via a Nate LaRue sacrifice fly.
LaRue tacked on a second sac-fly RBI as part of a three-run third and Auburn separated itself with five more in the fifth, bringing 11 hitters to the plate. Ryan Dyal’s two-run single along with a pair of hit batters with the bases loaded capped the inning.
Oklahoma transfer Christian Ruebeck suffered the loss after relieving Rothermel in the second. The sophomore righty struck out six in his Wildcat debut.
As a pitching staff, K-State racked up 17 strikeouts – a season high and more than any game last season. Three newcomers combined to keep Auburn scoreless over the final 3 1/3 innings: Tyler Ruhl, Dillon Pearson and Blake Corsentino.
Corsentino struck out the side in order in the ninth while Ruhl, a redshirt freshman, tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts. Pearson punched out two over an inning.
“Ty Ruhl got a great opportunity to come in and bump his way up the depth chart,” Hughes added. Everyone’s getting evaluated in our program no matter what the score is. Blake Corsentino came in and proved that he can compete and throw strikes with good tempo.”
The Tigers registered just one extra-base hit on the day, a double by Sonny DiChiara in the third.
Dyal went 2-for-3 with three RBI to lead the Auburn offense. Leadoff man Blake Rambush ended the day 3-for-5 with four runs scored.
