Kansas State Wildcats baseball

Last updated
Kansas State Wildcats
Baseball current event.svg 2024 Kansas State Wildcats baseball team
Kansas State baseball cap insignia 2019 version.png
Founded1897
Overall record1,933-1,926-10
University Kansas State University
Athletic director Gene Taylor
Head coach Pete Hughes (5th season)
Conference Big 12
Location Manhattan, Kansas
Home stadium Frank Myers Field at Tointon Family Stadium
(Capacity: 2,331)
Nickname Wildcats
ColorsRoyal purple and white [1]
   
NCAA regional champions
2013
NCAA Tournament appearances
2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2013
Regular season conference champions
1907 • 1908 • 1928 • 1930 • 1933 • 2013

The Kansas State Wildcats baseball team is a member of the NCAA and the Big 12 Conference. The program's first official game was in 1897.

Contents

Following the completion of the 2021 season, Kansas State's all-time record is 1,904–1,897–10 (.501).

Home field

Kansas State plays its home games at Frank Myers Field at Tointon Family Stadium. The stadium was built in 1961, and re-dedicated in 2002 with major improvements including a digital scoreboard, upgraded locker-room facilities, coaches' offices, and more.

The team's first official home field was an open public square in Manhattan located at Bluemont Avenue and 8th Street, which it began using in the 1898 season, called Athletic Field. [2] Construction of Bluemont Elementary School on that plot of land forced Kansas State to move its athletics on campus beginning in 1911. [2] The team's on-campus baseball diamond was initially located at the southwest corner of the campus, at the current location of Memorial Stadium. [2] However, in the following decades the squad played at numerous locations around Manhattan, including City Park and (for many years) Griffith Park, before the opening of the current ballpark.

History

According to most sources, Kansas State began intercollegiate competition with a match against St. Mary's College on May 26, 1894. [2] [3] (St. Mary's was a regional athletics powerhouse, whose recent graduates included baseball pioneers Charles Comiskey and Ted Sullivan.) However, the first game reflected in the school's official history is a 4–3 win over Fort Riley on April 10, 1897. [4] Playing in the old Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the baseball team earned its first varsity championship in 1907 under coach Mike Ahearn. [4]

Kansas State baseball team, 1897 Kansas State Agricultural College baseball team, 1897.jpg
Kansas State baseball team, 1897

After joining the Missouri Valley Conference in 1913, the Kansas State baseball team won major conference titles in 1928, 1930 and 1933. [4] The school's most recent championship was the Big 12 Conference regular season championship in 2013. Kansas State's best finish at the Big 12 Conference baseball tournament was runner-up at the 2008 tournament.

Transcending results on the field, the team established an important milestone when Kansas State catcher Earl Woods, the father of golfer Tiger Woods, became the first African-American baseball player in the Big Seven Conference in 1951. [5] [6]

Recent seasons

The Wildcats have established a number of firsts for the program in recent years. The team qualified for its first NCAA tournament in 2009, and has returned three times since. Kansas State also earned its first national rankings in the USA Today/ESPN Coach's Poll in 2009, [7] and set a new school record for wins with 43 in 2009, breaking the previous mark of 35 set in 1976.

In 2013, the Wildcats won the Big 12 Conference title and reestablished a new team record for wins. The school also was awarded the right to host the program's first NCAA regional. After winning the Manhattan Regional, Kansas State advanced to its first ever NCAA Super Regional. The team played at the Corvallis Super Regional, falling to the host and Pac-12 champion Oregon State Beavers. Kansas State finished ranked in the top 15 of all the major polls, the team's highest final rankings in history.

YearOverallConferencePlacePostseason
2009 43–17–114–10–14th Big 12 tournament
NCAA tournament
2010 37–2214–123rd Big 12 tournament
NCAA tournament
201136–2312–146th Big 12 tournament
NCAA tournament
201227–317–178th Big 12 tournament
201345–1916–81st Big 12 tournament
NCAA tournament
201425–305–199th
2015 27–3010–146th Big 12 tournament
2016 26–318–168th Big 12 tournament
201729–268–169th
201823–315–199th
201925–338–168th Big 12 tournament
202010-70-0–Season canceled due to COVID-19
2021 34–2310–147th Big 12 tournament
202229-298-167th Big 12 tournament
202333-2213-115th Big 12 tournament

Individual honors

Conference honors

Jake Scudder – 2016

Rivalry

Kansas State's main rival is the Kansas Jayhawks. The teams play every year in the Sunflower Showdown.

Former Wildcats in Major League Baseball

NameK-StateMLBTeam(s)
Josh Billings 19101913–23 Cleveland Naps, St. Louis Browns
Elden Auker 1929–321933–42 Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Browns
Butch Nieman 1938–391943–45 Boston Braves
Kite Thomas 19471952–53 Philadelphia A's, Washington Senators
Bob Randall 1967–691976–80 Minnesota Twins
Andy Replogle 1973–751978–79 Milwaukee Brewers
Ted Power 1974–761981–93 Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners
Craig Wilson 1989–921998–2000 Chicago White Sox
Carlos Torres 20042009–10,
2012–2018		 Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, Washington Nationals, Detroit Tigers
Evan Marshall 2009–112014–present Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox
A. J. Morris 2007–092016 Cincinnati Reds
Nick Martini 2009–112018–present Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, NC Dinos
Will Brennan 2017–192022-present Cleveland Guardians
Jordan Wicks 2019-20212023-present Chicago Cubs

Conference membership history

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Kansas State University Athletics Public Branding Guide (PDF). May 18, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Willard, Julius (1940). History of Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. Kansas State College Press.
  3. ↑ Olson, Kevin (2012). Frontier Manhattan. University Press of Kansas. p. 196. ISBN   978-0-7006-1832-3.
  4. 1 2 3 "Wildcat Baseball Through the Years" . Retrieved 2013-06-04.
  5. ↑ Woods, Earl; McDaniel, Pete (1997). Training a Tiger: A Father's Guide to Raising a Winner in Both Golf and Life . HarperCollins. ISBN   978-0-06-270178-7.
  6. ↑ "Tiger Woods' Father, Earl, Succumbs to Cancer". 3 May 2006. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  7. ↑ K-State Baseball Enters Top 25 Archived 2013-01-27 at archive.today
  8. ↑ MLB Draft Tracker
  9. ↑ Kansas State Baseball Players Who Made it to the Major Leagues
  10. ↑ Wildcats in Major League Baseball
  11. ↑ Willard, Julius (1940). History of Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. Kansas State College Press. pp. 499, 505–06.
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