Brad Hill saw something out of his team this weekend.
Yes, there were the three impressive pitching performances in three days by Kansas State, and after a 3-2 victory over Baylor on Sunday, the K-State coach watched his Wildcats pick up their first Big 12 sweep of the season.
He saw all of that, but perhaps above everything, he saw them embrace an attitude that he preached before the series even began — the need to have a short-term memory.
His team needed to forget about losing two games at Utah in the middle of the week.
After Sunday, it was evident the Wildcats had, as No. 20 K-State improved to 26-8 overall and 9-3 in conference play — its best start to a season in school history.
"I think we put it behind us quickly," Hill said. "I don't think we lived in that at all, and I don't think we saw any repercussions of what took place Tuesday and Wednesday.
"The guys did a great job, and we talk about short-term memory. Those two games weren't very good, we put it behind us and got ready for Baylor."
Having that short-term memory and mindset was reflected the most in the performance of the Wildcat pitching staff this weekend.
K-State got two great outings in their first two victories of the series, and Sunday that pattern continued.
It was a perfect stage set for sophomore Justin Lindsey on Sunday to put the exclamation point on the Wildcats' sweep, as he too was looking to forget about a poor outing at BYU.
Lindsey did just that, going 6 1/3 innings, as he gave up just two hits, allowing no runs, for his third victory of the season.
"It was really good for us to just kind of clear that (BYU trip) and say, 'This is a whole new series,' and also in Big 12 play everybody gets pumped up," Lindsey said.
The Wildcats took the early lead in the third inning when second baseman Jake Brown opened the frame with a walk and eventually scored on a safety-squeeze bunt by Carter Jurica.
In a series that had been low scoring for the entire weekend, it was clear that every run was important, and the Wildcats knew they had to convert on every chance they had.
"It was a great pitching duel again today, and small things like that will win games," Jurica said.
K-State went on to score once more in the third inning to take a 2-0 lead.
With the lead, and pitching performance the Wildcats were getting, K-State took control of the game for good, despite a late comeback attempt by the Bears (21-14, 5-8).
In the seventh inning, the Bears pushed across their first run of the game with an RBI single to right field off the bat of Max Muncy. Baylor would close the gap even further in the eighth inning when Gregg Glime belted a solo home run to left field off of KSU reliever Thomas Rooke, narrowing the score to 3-2.
But that was as close as Baylor got though, as Evan Marshall slammed the door in the ninth inning to record his first save of the season.
"I think we played great this weekend," Muenster said. "It showed our toughness bouncing back. A lot of guys that had a tough week at BYU really stepped up this weekend."
With the win the Wildcats further solidified their sole possession of second place in the Big 12. K-State trails first-place Texas, which owns a 13-2 conference record.
The Wildcats will look to use the momentum built against Baylor and take it to the road on Tuesday at Wichita State, followed by a three-game weekend series at Missouri.
Photo- K-State Sports Information
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