Kansas State couldn't have asked for a better position to be in during the sixth inning of Sunday's Sunflower Showdown finale at Tointon Family Stadium.
With the game tied, bases loaded and perhaps their most reliable hitter stepped to the plate, the Wildcats could taste their first lead of the day.
K-State badly needed a win on Sunday to win its first Big 12 series in three weeks, and Nick Martini was right there to give it to the Cats.
After driving a 3-1 pitch through the right side of the infield, bringing in two runs, the sophomore center fielder delivered on the opportunity.The two-run single gave the Wildcats their first lead, and it proved to be enough as they cruised through the final three innings behind a stellar bullpen effort for the 8-5 win in their final regular season home game.
"That's definitely huge for us," Martini said of the series win. "It gets us going in the right direction heading down to (Texas) A&M. Hopefully we can do good things down there too."
With the victory the Wildcats (34-16 13-10 Big 12) won the Sunflower Showdown series 2-1, after taking Friday's game 5-4 in Lawrence.
"It's been three weeks," KSU coach Brad Hill said. "It's been a long time coming since we have had a series win, and we have talked about that. Gosh it's been three weeks. You win on Friday and it's like, 'Come on let's go get this thing done.' I'm glad we did today — that's all I can say."
The series win kept the Wildcats in contention for a possible second-place finish in the Big 12, as they are in a close race with Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. Each team is within two games of each other, with K-State holding a half-game advantage over OU heading into the final weekend of play.
"I know it's a close race for second place," senior Adam Muenster said. "We definitely want second place, it's something that has never happened here before."
The Kansas bats got hot early, as leadoff hitter Brandon Macias began the game with a solo home run to left field off Wildcat starter Justin Lindsey. It was the beginning of a tough outing for the sophomore right-hander. Lindsey worked through 2 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits.
"Obviously, I had a rough start out there," Lindsey said. "The good thing about our team is we have a very good bullpen. Coach saw that I didn't have the stuff that I had against Texas or Baylor earlier in the year, so we just went to the hot hand right away. We have one of the best bullpens in the nation, so it's real nice to know that if you don't have it today the guy behind you is going to have it."
The K-State offense seemed to suffer an early hangover from its 7-3 loss on Saturday, prompting hitting coach Andy Sawyers to use an in-game pep-talk to motivate the squad.
"We actually came out kind of sluggish during those first three innings," Muenster said. "It actually took coach screaming at us to get us going."
The Wildcats responded, scoring three runs in the fourth inning and took advantage of a throwing error by KU starting pitcher Tanner Poppe to tie the game at three.
After the sluggish start, the K-State bullpen, or "Shark Tank" as they have called themselves, kept the Wildcats in the ballgame, allowing just one earned run over 6 1/3 innings of work. The combination of Thomas Rooke, Evan Marshall and James Allen combined to give up just four hits.
Marshall had an impressive outing, going 3 2/3 innings, allowing just one KU hit.
"Evan has just been incredible out of the bullpen for us," Hill said. "Anytime we feel like we can get to that sixth inning and we are tied or ahead, or just close, you feel really good about him coming in and stopping them.
Evan right now has just been our go-to guy. He has been outstanding."
The Wildcats have the week off before returning to action on Friday as they travel to College Station, Texas to face Texas A&M in their final Big 12 regular season series. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
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