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« on: May 21, 2017, 06:15:49 PM »
Season review and looking ahead to next season.
This season can be really be split into three different parts and in reality we played well in two of the three parts and played awful in the middle portion of the season. The non-conference season was highlighted with a win at South Carolina, champions of the Diamond 9 tournament with Pitt, Ohio State, and Delaware, a two game sweep of Liberty (who is actually good at baseball), a series win over Iowa. We started the season as a surprise team with a 15-5 record heading into conference play.
The start of conference season is where we forgot how to win games and could not score runs to save our lives, from March 24 through April 15 we went 2-12 with a 2-10 conference record during that span. We started conference play by getting swept by Texas and TCU. In the Texas series we lost two of the three games by 1 and 2 runs and did not score a run in the first 2 games of the series, and against TCU we took the first two games of the series into extra innings before losing them both by failing to score a run in either game before getting swept in the sunday finale.
We got our first conference win at Oklahoma State in the series opener and then followed that up with a subpar pitching performance on saturday before regaining our offensive struggles in the sunday finale losing the series 1-2.
The Texas Tech series brought a lot of the same as the Oklahoma State series. we were able to steal the series opener at home before losing two back and forth affairs in games 2 and three.
April 18 through the end of the season we went 12-8 and went 6-6 in conference play with two conference series wins against NCAA tourney teams. We started getting our act together again with a midweek double header sweep over New Mexico (who will win the mountain west conference) what started as a nightmare in game 1 with falling behind 8-1 we came back to win the game 12-10. Game 2 was a pitchers duel that we took 3-2.
We followed up the Midweek sweep with our first conference series win over West Virginia. We took a two run lead into the 8th inning in game one before giving that up and dropping the opener before taking games two and three of the series.
The following week we had a non conference series against Abilene Christian who we easily swept.
The next series against Oklahoma we took the middle game of the three game set.
The series at KU was a series we could have easily won or even swept but came up short in games 1 and 2. Game 1 was mostly even for the entire game with KU scoring a run to take the lead in the bottom of the 8th. Game 2 we were up 4-1 going into the bottom of the 7th where we gave up 5 runs in the 7th and 8th combined. Game 3 brought a masterful pitching performance and a win.
The final conference series against Baylor opened with a slugfest as we opened the game by taking a 12-3 lead before falling 21-13. Kstate swept a day night double header 10-8 & 6-5. We left the series with a game and a half lead over struggling Oklahoma State needing Oklahoma to split a double header the following day to make the conference tournament, unfortunately OU failed to win a game in the double header ending our season.
Next Season
What We lose:
our entire infield
First baseman Jake Scudder, a former JUCO transfer who was second in the big 12 in homeruns, first in RBIs graduates and is likely our biggest loss of the senior class.
Second Baseman Jake Wodtke, a fifth year senior, who caught fire the last few weeks of the season but other than that provided more in terms of leadership and experience than he did production.
Third baseman Josh Either, a former JUCO transfer, similar to Wodtke, had a great last month in a wildcat uniform but was mostly a defensive specialist.
Short stop Quinton Crandall, a former JUCO transfer, a decent player with the leather and the bat, did some good things but is not irreplacable.
Designated Hitter Steve Serratore, a former JUCO transfer, had an outstanding final weekend as a wildcat, had an above average bat at times, was considered more of a defensive liability when he did play the field as he lacked foot speed.
Starting Pitcher Parker Rigler, a former JUCO transfer, he was our most consistent pitcher through the entire season, he was named national pitcher of the week when he threw a no hitter against Eastern Illinois early in the season, had his struggles at times but will probably the second most missed player in the senior class.
Closer/relief pitcher Jordan Floyd, started the season as untouchable but became less consistent as the season went on, he did get the win in the first game of the double header on Friday, which was likely the highlight of the last half of the season for him.
Nick Jones, a former Juco transfer submarine pitcher, he was nice to have in spots to induce a ground ball out and at one point in the season he led the nation in number of appearances but became less effective as the season went on and got less and less time on the bump.
Pitcher Colton Kalmus, showed flashes of talent but never really put it all together during his kstate career. Had good stuff at times but lacked control and was consistent injury risk, he would likely either strike a batter out or walk them and in most cases it was the latter.
*Catcher Josh Rollete, we could lose the draft eligible sophmore, his numbers were not that great this year and went down significantly from his freshman season, this is a likely wait and see how much he is willing to sign for decision.
What we return:
The core of the Kstate baseball team lies in its Freshman class. Five freshman saw significant playing time and a sixth played well when given the opportunity. It could be argued that the two best bats and the best pitcher were all freshman for the Wildcats this season.
Will Brennan, Leftfielder-started most games for the cats this season, was recruited as a two way guy but saw limited time on the mound with his bat being to valuable to leave out of the lineup. Finished the season in the top 5 in the Big 12 conference in batting average while hitting .350 and on base percentage with a .453 OBP. He is a lock for the all big 12 freshman team, likely a freshman all american, and a candidate for big 12 newcomer of the year. He hit lead off for the team most of the season.
Cam Thompson, second on the team in batting average hitting .318, started every game for the wildcats, mostly as a center fielder, likely big 12 all freshman team member.
Kasey Ford, really blossomed once put into the starting rotation and has locked up a weekend rotation role, he finished the season with a 4.03 ERA but a 2.73 ERA in games started. He was the first freshman in K-state history to be named conference pitcher of the week for his performance against Kansas. He is likely a future Ace of the team, all 6'6 290 pounds of him.
Jared Marolff, like Ford, he finishes with a 4.03 ERA and really only had one bad outing the last two months of the season and that was against KU. A ground ball specialist that has a nasty change up.
Tyler Eckberg, finishes with the best ERA on the team, struggled a little towards the end of the season but rebounded the last three weeks of the season. Eckberg has some nasty junk that is hard to hit and is the future closer of the team and had just about taken that role over completely by the end of the season.
Connor Rule, didnt get enough at bats to really get a feel for what he could really do at the plate, but was the best defensive catcher on the roster and is the future of the position.
Other players that will be significant contributors to next years squad are Kyle Barfield, Hanz Harker, Justin Heskett, Hudson Treu, and Bryce Ward.
We will likely rely again on juco transfers to fill holes in the lineup and we have already locked up Rainer Ausmus from a Arizona Juco, who likely will play third base for us. Incoming freshman expected to play a big role are pitchers Jake Webb, Alex Belch, and Andrew Stratman and field players Jordan Maxon and Noah Hemphill. Our biggest needs going into next year is left handed pitching and and hitting for power. I believe that if the the incoming class can have near the impact of the current freshman class the future of the cats looks bright. However, I am a realist, Brad Hill is entering next season in the final year of his contract and securely on the hot seat, I think he will survive this season and give the new AD a full season to evaluate him.
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