Kansas State held a 6-4 lead after six innings, only to see No. 16 Nebraska score three runs over the final three frames to secure a 7-6 walk-off victory over the Wildcats Tuesday night at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

K-State (26-19) crawled out of an early 3-0 hole and battled to take a 6-4 lead until Nebraska (32-11) erased the deficit, highlighted with a game-tying RBI triple from Jeter Worthley. Knotted at 6-6, Rhett Stokes delivered the decisive hit, lining a 1-0 pitch down the left field line to score the winning run from second.

“That was really unfortunate,” eighth-year head coach Pete Hughes said. “I thought we played a tough game on the road. We played from behind. We built a lead. We didn’t have some plays go our way and didn’t have some calls go our way. I thought we may have had catcher’s interference there in the seventh that would’ve changed the entire inning, but we have no room to complain. We handed them all three of their runs in the first, and they all add up. They played cleaner baseball tonight and that was the difference in the game.”

After surrendering the first three runs in the opening frame, right-hander James Guyette went on to allow just one run over his final three innings before turning it over to the bullpen. Aaron Arnold logged 1 2/3 innings in relief of Guyette, while Miles Snith (2-4) was charged with the loss, allowing three earned runs on four hits 2 2/3 innings of work.

Nebraska used six pitchers, with closer J’Shawn Unger (6-1) earning the win after tossing two scoreless innings, allowing one hit with one walk and two strikeouts.

Bear Madliak, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI, recording his 13th multi-hit game and his eighth home run of the season. K-State got a pair of two-RBI efforts from Ty Smolinski and Nick English, as both each connected two-run run homer.

How it happened

Nebraska took 3-0 lead in the opening frame, scoring twice on a wild pitch from Guyette before adding another run on a fielding error.

Grant Gallagher doubled to lead off the third and advanced to third on a flyout to right. The senior third baseman scored in the next at-bat, as Chandler Murray chopped a ball up the middle to trim the deficit to two.

The Cornhuskers recovered the run in the bottom of the inning and pushed their lead back to three, but was answered with a two-out, two-run shot by Ty Smolinski. The sophomore belted the first pitch he faced to right center, scoring Micah Kendrick from first after a single.

Arnold entered the game for Guyette and scattered three hits over his 1 2/3 innings before handing the ball over to Smith.

Down 4-3, the Wildcats took their first lead of the game with a go-ahead blast from English. Gallagher worked a leadoff walk and scored on English’s sixth homer of the season.

Madliak stretched the lead, 6-4, blasting 394-foot no-doubter deep over the left field wall.

K-State escaped bases-loaded jams in the fourth and sixth innings to maintain the lead, but Nebraska broke through with two runs to tie the game at 6-6.

Nebraska completed the comeback in the ninth, as Joshua Overbeek led off with a double before Stokes delivered the walk-off single.

The Wildcats will return to Big 12 play this weekend, when they take a trip to face No. 18 West Virginia (28-12, 13-8 Big 12). Friday’s series opener is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. CT at Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark.

The Mountaineers enter the series tied fourth in the Big 12 standings, alongside TCU, while the Wildcats are in a three-way tie for ninth.