OU takes series with win in finale

By Erik Stone

For several of their Big 12 Baseball series this season, the song has been the same for the Kansas State Wildcats, win the first game of the series then lose the next two.

The scenario played out in earlier series this season against Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Texas Tech and as it turns out, the same result occurred against Oklahoma in their last home series of the season.

After a 5-0 win Friday night behind a complete game by Nate Griep, the Bat Cats fell in the middle game of the series Saturday 5-3 and then on Sunday, the Sooners bolted out to a 4-0 lead and hung on for a 4-3 victory before an announced crowd of 2,514 at Tointon Family Stadium.

After the start of the game was delayed 86 minutes by rain, the Sooners jumped on starting and losing pitcher Colton Kalmus (1-4) for three first inning runs. They would plate another tally in the fourth inning off Jordan Floyd who came in for Kalmus with two outs in the top of the second inning.

K-State however, would not go quietly as the Wildcats got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth when Shane Conlon reached on an error by Oklahoma Pitcher Alec Hansen (5-5) after Hansen missed the bag while covering first base allowing Carter Yagi to score. K-State would trim the Sooners’ lead to one run with a pair of runs in the sixth on RBI singles by Alex Bee and Yagi.

Yet K-State was unable to score further and ended up leaving 10 men on base. Tyler Moore who represented the winning run at the plate was called out on strikes to end the game with the tying run on third base.
Kansas State (24-27, 8-13) enters its final series of the regular season still with a legitimate shot at qualifying for the Big 12 Tournament which begins on May 20 in Tulsa, OK. K-State is currently tied for sixth with Baylor and owns the tie-breaker over the Bears and leads West Virginia and Kansas by a half game. The Mountaineers hold the tie-breaker over the Wildcats by virtue of their series win in Manhattan earlier this season.

K-State will travel to Lawrence to wrap up the regular season with a series against KU at Hoglund Ballpark May 15-17. Game times are 6 p.m. Friday, and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

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