Baseball: What can we learn from K-State's series win over Kansas?

Kansas State headed into a weekend series against Kansas needing a win. Desperately.

Not only have the Wildcats seen a stretch of struggles over the last few weeks, but their seeding in the NCAA Tournament was at risk.

While it wasn't always pretty, the Wildcats handled business, taking two of three games against the Jayhawks to advance to 29-18 on the year.

With six games remaining in the season, the Wildcats will need to finish the season song to help their NCAA Tournament seeding and give them momentum for the important stretch of the season.

Before we look towards the series against West Virginia and BYU, now is a good time to recap the Kansas series and what we may have learned from the three-game set.

Brady Day has already established himself as an MLB talent and could've gone pro last season after being picked in the 12th round of the MLB Entry Draft.

However, Day chose to return to Manhattan and has seen improvement and success. Day is batting .343 with 7 home runs and 40 RBIs this season. His strikeouts have increased from last season, but he's also shown more power and a better feel at the plate.

In the Kansas series, Day produced another two base hits, including a double and an RBI, which tied the game for K-State on Sunday.

Kaelen Culpepper has emerged as a legitimate MLB Draft prospect and had a solid game to open the series. Culpepper drove home a run in that game and produced two hits, bumping his season average to .326.

Day and Culpepper are both MLB Draft eligible this season, but some prospects who aren't draft-eligible could draw scouts' interest in the future...

It hasn't always been pretty for Nick English, but the Kansas series proved that the true freshman has MLB talent waiting to be harnessed.

English finished the series with two multi-hit games and brought home three players throughout the series. In the series finale, English was responsible for two of K-State's runs to help seal the eventual win.

English hasn't shown consistency yet, but that's to be expected. Ultimately, he's still a true freshman finding his footing against college arms and talent. However, there's no reason to belive he can't be the building block for the next two seasons.

This is a matter of both consistency and general offensive output for K-State.

The Wildcats were shutout in the middle game of the series, marking the third time they've been shutout over the last seven games. It was the fourth time they've been shutout, as they held scoreless against UConn earlier in the season.

Generally, the offense probably needs to find its sweet spot heading into the conference tournament.

There have been moments where the Wildcats have waited until the later innings to get their offense going and have had games where they've scored three runs or less. It might be enough to win a game or two, but it's not a recipe for success in the NCAA Tournament.

K-State doesn't need to score double-digit runs per game, but they do need to find a way to maintain consistent offense.