April 21, 2008

Manhattan, KS (UWIRE) -- The Kansas State baseball team went into the weekend in last place in the Big 12 Conference and its opponent, Texas Tech, was right in front in the standings. The Wildcats (18-20, 5-10 Big 12) went out and won two of the three games to take them out of the cellar and into seventh place out of 10 teams.

Friday: K-State 12, Texas Tech 4

K-State started off well and never seemed to stop offensively as the Wildcats defeated Texas Tech (18-23, 5-13 Big 12) 12-4 on Friday night.

The Wildcats started off the game with four runs in the first inning and added two in the fourth inning and six in the fifth.

Texas Tech's A.J. Ramos helped the Wildcats with his pitching. He walked the first four batters, giving K-State its first run. The next batter, freshman Carter Jurica, singled up the middle to drive in two runs.

Wildcats put distance between themselves and the Red Raiders in the sixth inning with six runs. K-State batted around the whole lineup starting with Jurica and ending with Jurica. Junior Nate Tenbrink hit a three-run homerun to put the visiting team up 12-4.

Senior Brad Hutt, the starting pitcher for the Wildcats, and only went 1 2/3 innings while giving up four runs in the bottom of the first. Freshman Thomas Rooke (4-1) came in and got the win for K-State by pitching the rest of the game, striking out five and only giving up three hits.

Saturday: K-State 7, Texas Tech 4

Two big hits late in the game gave K-State the 7-4 victory over Texas Tech in the second game of a three-game series.

Junior Jordan Cruz hit a three-run homerun in the top of the 10th inning to give the Wildcats the 7-4 lead, but that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for junior Byron Wiley.

Wiley tied the game in the top of the ninth inning when he doubled to center field to score senior Brett Scott with two outs. It was Wiley's only hit of the game.

Texas Tech had a 3-1 lead after four innings, but K-State fought back scoring two runs in the fifth and the one in the ninth. The Red Raiders scored their last run of the game in the eighth.

Junior Nate Tenbrink homered for the second straight game. In the fifth, he hit a two-run homerun. The win went to senior pitcher Daniel Edwards (2-3) after he pitched the final 1 2/3 innings.

It was Texas Tech's eighth-straight loss.

Sunday: Texas Tech 19, K-State 4

Getting pounded is never fun, but that is what happened to K-State early in the

final game of Texas Tech series, as the Red Raiders beat the Wildcats 19-4 in seven innings.

Texas Tech opened the game with nine runs off of seven hits in the bottom of the first, two runs in the second and three runs in the third. K-State scored zero runs in the first four innings.

K-State couldn't get on the scoreboard until the fifth inning when the Wildcats put one run across the plate. The Wildcats added three more in the sixth, but Red Raiders still didn't stop scoring.

Texas Tech had 14 runs going into the fifth, but added five more giving them a 19-1 lead at one point.

K-State's senior starter Chase Bayuk didn't even record an out. Bayuk gave up six runs - one unearned - before getting pulled for freshman Justin Lindsey, who allowed three-unearned runs before he was pulled after getting only one out.

(C) 2008 Kansas State Collegian via UWIRE