Winning the home games is important to Kansas State baseball coach Brad Hill. He's preached the value of winning the home
Big 12 series all season.
On Sunday, the 20th-ranked Wildcats did just that as they used a six-run sixth inning to drop the visiting Nebraska Cornhuskers 8-3 at Tointon Family Stadium.
It was K-State's second straight home series win, as the Cats improved to 23-6 overall and 6-3 in conference action.
"It was real big," Hill said. "You need to win them at home. You have got to take care of business at home."
The Wildcats and Huskers were tied at one in the sixth when centerfielder Nick Martini opened the inning with a line-drive single up the middle.
It was Martini's second hit of the game, having already extended his hit streak to a school-record 26 games in the first inning when singled to center and broke Chris Hess' 1995 mark of 25 games.
"He has been very mature about it," Hill said of Martini's pursuit of the record. "He goes about his business and gets his hits.
He takes walks and he doesn't really care. I appreciate his unselfishness and doing what it takes to help our team win."
The single up the middle sparked a six-run outburst, breaking the tie and giving the Wildcats a 7-1 lead.
"Since it was a tied game, I was just trying to go up there and hit something flat and I got something flat," Martini said.
Hill said the performance from Martini was something he has grown accustomed to throughout the season.
"He just continues to do good things for us," Hill said. "He seems to come up at the right times, and they were pitching pretty carefully to him and I thought he showed great patience all day today."
The Cats took the lead when Chase Graskewicz laid down a safety-squeeze bunt, scoring Martini from third and giving K-State its first lead of the game.
"That was huge," KSU shortstop Carter Jurica said. "We got those big bunts down and that really got it going and then we got clutch hits after that."
The squeeze bunt was followed by four consecutive hits as the Wildcats built their comfortable lead.
With the lead the Wildcats rode the combined pitching effort of Ryan Daniel, Evan Marshall, Thomas Rooke and James Allen to close out the game.
Combined, the pitching staff gave up just three earned runs, and Marshall recorded his third win of the season. Marshall threw 4 2/3 innings of relief work in the series after being moved to the bullpen following last weekend's trip to Lubbock.
Daniel made the start for the Wildcats on Sunday and pitched five innings, giving up just one earned run on seven hits. His performance kept the Cats in the game, despite two errors committed behind him early.
"He was very gutty," Hill said of Daniel. "We had some bad plays defensively that really could have cost us. He made some big pitches against some good players at the right time."
Hill said the rotation is going to continue to alternate between pitchers with the upcoming mid-week series against BYU.
"We are just going to keep flip-flopping," Hill said. "We are going to try and keep (Kyle) Hunter in the middle. That's probably what we are going to try and do."
The Wildcats will begin their series against Cougars on Tuesday with first pitch scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Series Notes
• Nick Martini's 26-game hitting streak is the longest active hitting streak in the nation.
• The Wildcats played in front of some of the largest crowds in K-State baseball history over the weekend. While there were no single-game records broken, the combined series crowd of 8,540 was the largest three-game series crowd in Tointon Family Stadium history.
• Adam Muenster recorded his 62nd career stolen base Sunday afternoon, breaking the school's record set by Tim Decker from from 1993-95.
• Matt Giller and Kent Urban's grand slams on Saturday afternoon were the first of their careers and the first grand slam in a K-State game since Justin Bloxom hit one last season on March 14.
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