Series Recap: K-State baseball drops two to Texas at home

No. 23 Kansas State baseball welcomed the Texas Longhorns to Tointon for the last time as conference foes.

While the series, and K-State's bats, started hot, the last 2 games of the series were a different story. Kansas State dropped the series 1-2, and now stands at 18-8 on the season and 6-3 in conference play.

Here is your series recap from the weekend.

K-State's offense started the series off hot, opening their scoring with a single from Kyan Lodice in the second inning. Lodice then stole second, allowing Nick English to steal home. Another four runs from K-State forced Texas' starter out of the game and gave the Wildcats a 6-2 lead after two innings.

As the game progressed, home runs by Lodice, David Bishop, and Kaelen Culpepper pushed their lead to 13-3.

K-State's impressive stats included 14 runs on 18 hits with no errors, while Texas managed six runs on 10 hits and an error. Notably, eight of K-State's hits were for extra bases. Every Wildcats player contributed at least one hit, with six players achieving multiple hits.

On the pitching side, Josh Wintroub got the win after pitching 5.1 innings, allowing just three earned runs on six hits. He also struck out five batters.

The game marked K-State's highest-scoring against Texas since 1997 and extended their 10-game winning streak, the program's longest since 2014.

K-State and Texas went blow-for-blow in the second game, but Texas ultimately secured the win in a high-scoring affair.

K-State started strong with solo home runs by Chuck Ingram and Raphael Pelletier in the first two innings. However, Texas responded with three two-run home runs, establishing an 8-3 lead by the bottom of the sixth inning.

Culpepper's second home run of the series kick-started a potential comeback, as K-State eventually tied the game at 8, but Texas would quickly capitalize on a throwing error to build an 11-8 lead.

After K-State tied it again, Texas took over, scoring three runs in the 8th and seven in the 9th to win 21-11.

Texas excelled with runners in scoring position, hitting .455 compared to K-State's .154. The game marked the highest-scoring contest in the series' history, with Texas extending its lead in the all-time series.

Texas threatened early in the game with bases loaded in the opening frame, but Owen Boerema's solid pitching helped K-State escape the jam unscathed. The game remained scoreless until the Longhorns took the lead with a two-run double, before doubling it in the fourth inning, to take a 4-0 lead.

K-State responded in the sixth, capitalizing on a fielding error that led to Culpepper's triple, bringing the score to 4-1.

In the seventh, Tyson Neighbors relieved Boerema and retired three straight batters, including his first strikeout at home this season. K-State rallied in the bottom of the inning, with hits by Ingram and Jones loading the bases, but a lengthy substitution disrupted their momentum, ending the threat with a strikeout.

.K-State closed the gap in the eighth as Lodice singled and Pelletier walked, setting up David Bishop's RBI hit to make it 4-3. However, Texas would hit a pair of home runs to extend their lead and secure the win.

Despite the loss, K-State showcased fight and had strong individual performances, including that from Pelletier, who extended his career-best on-base streak to 29 games.

The loss pushed K-State out of D1Baseball's Top 25 after one week. Replacing them is Nebraska and conference-foe UCF.

Tomorrow, the Wildcats will end their mid-week series against Missouri State. The two played in March, with K-State taking both games by a combined score of 23-9.

They'll then travel to Orlando to play No. 25 UCF for a weekend set that begins on Friday.

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