Kansas State baseball drops Western Michigan 11-3 to win series

Feb. 28—Kansas State didn't take its first lead Friday until the bottom of the eighth inning, when it scored five runs to move ahead 9-8, which turned out to be the final score.

K-State wasted no time Saturday, though.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first and never looked back in an 11-3 win over Western Michigan at Tointon Family Stadium.

Coupled with Friday's one-run victory, K-State (4-2) already has won the weekend series, with a chance for a sweep Sunday.

Carson Seymour, the Wildcats' starting pitcher, permitted just one run over five innings of work in his first win of the season. The Broncos (0-2) didn't notch a hit until two outs remained in the fourth inning.

"Good day in a lot of ways," K-State head coach Pete Hughes said. "First of all, we won, and then we got Carson Seymour back on track. I thought Carson was really good today. I probably left him in there a little too long, but if we want to go to where we want to go, Carson is probably going to have to get extended a little bit. He did awesome, though, and the conditions were very offensive against a veteran offensive team.

"Carson definitely set the tone and gave some time for our offense to build some innings and to build the lead."

Freshman Nick Goodwin got the Wildcats on the board in the first, recording a double on the first pitch he saw Saturday to score Kaden Fowler. Dylan Phillips had an RBI base knock of his own to give K-State a 2-0 lead after one inning.

Goodwin was just getting started: He belted a solo home run in his next at-bat, his second homer of the series, to extend the lead to 3-0. Back-to-back RBI singles from Terrence Spurlin and Caleb Littlejim, respectively, made the score 5-0 after three frames.

Western Michigan finally pushed a run across the plate in the sixth, but K-State responded with four runs in the seventh to balloon its lead to 9-1.

The four-run seventh included an RBI double from Kamron Willman and a three-run home run from Cameron Thompson.

With a 2-for-5 outing Saturday, Thompson continued his rise up the Wildcats' all-time hits list. He now has 219 in his career, tied for ninth most in program history alongside Chris Hess (1993-96). Next up is Adam Muenster, who had 239 base knocks for K-State from 2007 to 2010.

Three other Wildcats had two-hit showings Saturday: Littlejim (who also had two RBI), Spurlin and Willman.

The Wildcats' ended with season highs in both runs and hits (14).

K-State's offense didn't blink with two outs, hitting .400 (6-for-15) in those situations Saturday, recording seven RBI. Western Michigan was on the opposite end of the spectrum, going 1-for-10 with two outs, and just 1-for-14 with runners on base.

The Wildcats scored three runs, all earned, off Bronco starter Brady Miller, who was tagged with the loss.

"We knew that their starter, Miller, was going to be a strike thrower," Hughes said. "So when you know the ball is going to be around the plate, you can be aggressive early in counts. Really great balance throughout our entire lineup. Good to get Willman going. Caleb Littlejim is playing very good baseball. I liked the fact that we got multiple RBIs and runs scored with two outs. It's something you preach: If you want to be a great team, you've got to play great with two outs."

After Seymour left the mound, Kasey Ford came on in the sixth inning and allowed one hit and one earned run in 2 1/3 innings. Nico Rodriguez got the final five outs for the Wildcats; he didn't permit a single base runner.

K-State gave up just one extra-base hit Saturday: a double from Bronco second baseman Justin McIntyre in the eighth. The Wildcats had five extra-base hits of their own: doubles from Goodwin, Willman and Zach Kokoska and homers from Thompson and Goodwin.

First pitch in Sunday's series finale is set for noon. The game will air on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.