K-State will host the first two rounds in Manhattan. Plus the men accept invite to NIT.
MittieCats
Your Kansas State Wildcats have earned a 4-seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and will host the first two rounds at Bramlage this coming Friday and Sunday!
Despite fading a bit down the stretch of the season, the Wildcats (25-6) maintained enough momentum to hang on to a top 16 seed to be able to host the first round games; a huge win for the Wildcats and Manhattan. The Wildcats are the 4-seed in a very loaded Albany Regional, as #2 Iowa (29-4) — who the Cats beat in Iowa City earlier this season — is the 1-seed, #6 UCLA (25-6) is the 2-seed, and last year’s champs #8 LSU (28-5) is the 3-seed. #18 Colorado (22-9), who was also at play for a potential 4-seed, will be the 5-seed and will join K-State in Manhattan.
K-State plays 13-seed Portland at 3:30pm CT on Friday, March 22nd (aired on ESPNNews), while Colorado will face 12-seed Drake at 6:00pm CT that evening.
TangCats
Despite a couple of late Quad 1 wins to help boost their resume, ultimately a losing Big 12 record and a weak non-conference schedule doomed the Wildcats on Selection Sunday, as they failed to earn a bid to the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The Cats had plenty of opportunities to prevent this, regardless of their NET rating, but lost several games in Big 12 play that they probably should have won, including losses at Oklahoma State and Cincinnati, and at home to TCU.
However, the TangCats were still invited and accepted the bid to the 2024 NIT Tournament. K-State (19-14) will travel to Iowa City for a Tuesday night matchup with 3-seed Iowa (18-14) at 8pm CT that will be aired on ESPN. This is a bittersweet moment for senior Tylor Perry, who won the NIT last year with North Texas, but transferred to K-State because he wanted a shot at the Big Dance. Regardless, this could be a very good opportunity for some “development” minutes for the young guys on the roster, especially the trio of true freshmen, to gain much-needed postseason experience.
BatCats
It may not have gone exactly to plan, but the BatCats were able to battle through on Friday and Saturday to pick up wins against the visiting Missouri State Bears before completing the sweep on Sunday with a dominant 11-3 win.
On Friday, the Cats went into the bottom of the 6th down 2-3, but junior catcher Raphael Pelletier knocked a go-ahead two-run single to push the score to 5-3, and then a 2-run 7th gave the Cats their final 7-3 advantage. Jackson “Cash Now” Wentworth (nickname in progress) pitched three scoreless innings with 7 strikeouts to 9 batters-faced to finish the game and pick up the save, his 3rd of the season.
Saturday, the Cats fell into a 6-2 hole in the 4th, but ran off 10-straight runs, including a monster 8-run 7th inning, to pick up the series win. K-State starter Jacob Frost, who pitched so brilliantly last Friday against Cincinnati, struggled through 3.2 innings, giving up all 6 runs and 8 of the 10 hits for the Bears on the afternoon. But Cole Wisenbaker came in and pitched 3.1 innings, throwing 6 strikeouts while facing 11 batters during his stretch to allow the Cat bats to wake up to pick up his first win of the season.
Sunday, it was all about K-State’s Owen Boerema, who pitched 8 shut-out innings to pick up his second win of the season, as the Cats rolled 11-3. Boerema only threw 5 strikeouts, but faced just three batters over the minimum in those 8 innings of work, as his defense picked up 13 ground-outs and 6 fly-outs to keep the sheet clean during his run on the mound. JUCO transfer Preston Martinez, in his 6th appearance of the season, gave up two earned-runs runs on two hits and a walk in the 9th to complete the day — the third run came unearned thanks to a passed ball that put a runner at 3rd. Offensively, the BatCats again woke up late, and held a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 6th before a 5-run 6th (that included no homeruns) and a 3-run 7th (also no homers) gave the Cats a huge cushion. In the 8th, JUCO transfer Mason Schwalbach, who had come in to pinch-hit, carded his first K-State homerun to lead-off the inning and complete the scoring effort.
K-State finished the weekend at 13-6, while the Bears head off to Stillwater at 9-9. But despite the record, this is a big series win and sweep, as the Bears were picked to finish 2nd in a strong Missouri Valley, and are a regular contender for NCAA post-season play. Also to note, the Bears have just three home games, a series against Arkansas State to open March, in their first twenty-two games. They don’t play in Springfield again until the last week of March. K-State also heads to Springfield on April 3rd for a mid-week game.
Next up for the Wildcats is a road swing that takes them to Wichita on Tuesday night to face the 13-6 Shockers at Eck Stadium at 6pm CDT (ESPN+), then a trip down to Houston for a weekend series against the (currently) 12-6 Cougars that starts on Friday at 6:30pm CDT from Schroeder Park. Saturday’s first pitch is also slated for 6:30pm CDT, with Sunday’s finale at 1pm CDT. All three games in Houston will be streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
This will be the 9th-straight game in Wichita for the Shockers, who are 7-2 over that stretch and just completed a sweep of Gonzaga this past weekend. The Cougars are 4-2 in Big 12 play, sweeping Baylor at home two weeks ago before dropping two of three against BYU in Provo this past weekend. They face Rice for a “home and home” on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.