After making program history this past weekend with the first series win in Waco, Texas, K-State baseball will hit the road today to take on Minnesota in a two-game midweek series.
The Wildcat (20-22, 7-11) hitters showed some late-game dominance Sunday, scoring five runs in the final two innings to close out the game and the series over Baylor.
Meanwhile, Minnesota (18-21, 7-11) is coming off a home series loss to Michigan, which included a 12-3 blowout in the series clincher. The Golden Gophers have struggled this season, particularly in conference play, having registered just one Big Ten series win.
K-State and Minnesota have played two common opponents this season, and the results are almost identical.
Early in the season, the Golden Gophers traveled to Austin, Texas to take on the Longhorns and were swept in a four-game series roughly a month before K-State was swept by Texas down south to begin conference play.
Minnesota also lost a series on the road against Nebraska in which it dropped the final two games of the three-game set. K-State dropped both the home and away matchups against the Cornhuskers.
As the season winds to a close — with the Big 12 Tournament looming — K-State will continue to look to senior leaders, infielders Shane Conlon and Carter Yagi and outfielder Max Brown, to provide a spark for the Wildcat offense.
Conlon leads the team in hits, batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage. Yagi and Conlon each lead the team in runs scored. Brown has the most triples and the most RBI’s for the team so far this season.
K-State trails the overall series against the Golden Gophers 8-4 dating back to 1993. The Wildcats, however, are winners of the last two matchups which occurred in the 2012-13 season.
First pitch between K-State and Minnesota is slated for today at 6:35 p.m. at Seibert Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Freshman outfielder is Big 12 Newcomer of the Week
Freshman outfielder Sam Chadick was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week Monday after dominant performances in his last four games, scoring five runs on seven hits and a .438 batting average.
Chadick’s week ranked him in the top 10 in the Big 12 in several categories. The outfielder tied for fourth in RBIs, fifth in weekly batting average and eighth in hits per week. This past weekend against Baylor was the first start of his career.
The freshman is the fourth K-State player this season to receive a weekly award from the Big 12 and the third to receive Newcomer of the Week honors. Chadick shared this week’s honor with Kansas pitcher Ben Krauth.
