After going over a decade without an NCAA Tournament appearance, Kansas State baseball is making the most of its chances in 2024. The Bat Cats advanced to the Super Regionals on Sunday night after taking down SEMO 7-2.
K-State used hot bats and timely pitching to rip through the Fayetteville Regional, as they beat all three teams there.
Play opened on Friday night when the third-seeded Bat Cats dispatched Louisiana Tech, but only after a weather delay forced the game to pause until Saturday morning. K-State led 9-4 after five innings when the game resumed, and they went on to make more than rain pour on the Bulldogs. Kaelen Culpepper hit for the cycle in the game the Wildcats won 19-4.
That set up a winner’s game matchup with host and fifth-ranked Arkansas. The Razorbacks sent their best pitcher to the hill in Hagen Smith. The junior lefty and All-American had a 2.04 ERA on the season, but K-State touched him for six runs, all coming in the same inning.
Freshman Nick English added a big insurance run with a solo shot in the 8th inning that propelled K-State to a 7-6 win. The Wildcats only had to use Jackson Wentworth and Tyson Neighbors on the mound in the game.
The 2-0 start for Kansas State was a major boost to the chances of advancing to the next round, having the cushion to lose a game.
That cushion wasn’t needed though. SEMO upset Arkansas in the one-loss semifinal and advanced to the regional final against K-State.
The bats didn’t take long to get hot for K-State, as they struck for four runs in the second inning and three in the third.
K-State’s bats weren’t the only thing working against SEMO in the regional final though. The pitching staff comprised of Ty Ruhl, Cole Wisenbaker, Blake Dean, and JJ Slack allowed just 2 runs on 7 hits and punched out 10 SEMO hitters. Briefly, things got interesting in the ninth when Dean walked the first two batters and Slack let his first at-bat get to a 3-0 count. After settling in he retired Ty Stauss on a flyball to left field, then retired the next two batters with minimal drama.
The Redhawks, appearing in their first regional final in school history, scratched across a pair of runs in the eighth, but it wasn’t enough. The Bat Cats won the regional final by a score of 7-2, advancing to the Super Regionals for the first time since 2013.
K-State will face No. 12 overall seed Virginia in Charlottesville later this week. NCAA Super Regionals are a best-of-three series, with the first to take two games advancing to the College World Series in Omaha. The only other trip in school history to a Super Regional saw K-State fall to Oregon State two games to one in 2013 with a road trip to Corvallis.
Full details for the NCAA Baseball Tournament can be found here.
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