After last night’s embarrassing 8-0 loss to Oklahoma State (37-13, 15-5 Big 12), K-State (24-27, 4-16 Big 12) kept today’s game closer, but still fell 6-4 to the No. 7 Cowboys.
“A lot more fight today,” head coach Brad Hill said of his team’s performance. “That was no comparison to yesterday. No comparison.”
The Wildcats quieted last night’s offensive woes by striking quickly with a run in the bottom of the first inning. However, Oklahoma State came back with two runs in the second and four more in the top of the fifth to jump ahead 6-1.
Three K-State runs in the bottom of the fifth made it a two-run game, but the Wildcats were not able to find home plate again despite a few chances, including loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs.
The offense had a much stronger presence game two, striking for 11 hits and four walks. Junior center fielder Max Brown had three of the free passes and also showed off his speed with two bunt singles.
Junior Carter Yagi had two hits while moving from second to third by game’s end. Junior right fielder Mitch Meyer also added two hits for the afternoon.
“Definitely fought, competed a lot better today,” Santigate said of coming up short in the middle game of the series. “Obviously the result didn’t happen, but how we approached things is the way we want to approach things and we just have to keep building from that. Hopefully if we keep doing what we did today, it will result in a win.”
Jake Matthys made his second start this season for K-State, but had his share of struggles. The sophomore allowed five runs off six hits while striking out one and walking no batters in his four inning performance.
Senior Jared Moore pitched 2 2/3 innings of relief while allowing one run, but command issues led to four walks. Freshman Jake Fromson finished out the game by tossing 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
The two teams will square off tomorrow at 1 p.m. for the series finale as K-State looks to avoid its third straight sweep in Big 12 play.
