After an extra-inning loss to Nebraska Tuesday night, the K-State baseball team, 16-21 and 3-9 in the Big 12 Conference, will have extra time to prepare for its weekend series against the Baylor Bears, 17-20 overall and 4-8 in the conference.
The Wildcats were initially scheduled to play the Omaha Mavericks on Wednesday night, but the game was cancelled due to rain. No makeup date has been determined at this time.
Baylor enters tonight’s first game of the three-game series in sort of a skid as of late. The Bears have lost four in a row, including a sweep at the hands of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Baylor has also lost six of its last eight outings.
Junior outfielder Darryn Sheppard has been the driving force for the Bears. Sheppard has started in all 37 games for Baylor this season. He has accumulated a .331 batting average. The native of Sugar Land, Texas, has also recorded 29 runs, 48 hits, 36 RBIs and six home runs in his 145 appearances at the plate.
K-State has had some small, but meaningful success recently, going 3-2 over the last five games. But it is the result of Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to Nebraska that the Wildcats will look to shake with this weekend series.
Although K-State took the Huskers to 11 innings, they failed to find a lot of production offensively. Specifically disappointing to head coach Brad Hill was the fifth inning, during which the Wildcats scored only one run with the bases loaded.
“No question (it hurts),” Hill said after Tuesday’s loss. “Bases loaded, no outs, that should be a minimum of two, but we only got one out of it. That’s part of it, and we did have some other opportunities. There’s enough hits on the board to have four or five runs.”
The pitching for K-State on the weekend will begin with junior Parker Rigler, who enters the series with a 2-6 record and a 4.63 ERA. Senior Levi MaVorhis will take the honors on Saturday with his 4-3 record and 3.91 ERA. Senior Corey Fischer will wrap up the series on Sunday with a 1-3 record and a 4.91 ERA.
For the Bears, junior Daniel Castano will start Thursday’s game with a 2-4 record and a 4.10 ERA. Junior Drew Tolson will follow him with a 4-2 record and a 4.45 ERA. Freshman Kyle Hill’s 1-2 record and 4.30 ERA will close out the series on Sunday.
Game one is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday’s game will take place at 4 p.m., and the finale will be at 1 p.m. Sunday. All games will be held at Tointon Family Stadium.
