Kansas State baseball dropped its final regular season series at Central Florida, finishing the regular season with an overall record of 28-26 with an 11-19 Big 12 record.

Pinch hitter Stephen Chucka’s game-tying solo home run sparked a ninth-inning rally Saturday afternoon, as UCF walked off K-State, 6-5, at John Euliano Park.

UCF (31-20, 19-11 Big 12) trailed 5-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth after K-State regained the lead with a sacrifice fly ball to center from Grant Gallagher.

Chucka led off the inning with his first home run of the season and second game-changing pinch-hit of the series to tie the game. With two outs and runners on first and third, UCF capitalized on a throwing error to walk it off and secure the conference series.

“Unbelievably disappointed. We had some great performances and big moments today,” head coach Pete Hughes said in a statement. “We’re all frustrated with the ninth inning, but we left a lot runs out there multiple times earlier on in that game.”

“We had bases loaded with one out and didn’t score,” Hughes continued. “We had first and second with no outs and didn’t score. We had a leadoff double that did not lead to a run. They all add up. We had our guy on the mound at the end, and they got a big hit, but we had our chances.

Friday

Behind two home runs from Ty Smolinski and six consecutive shutout innings from Lincoln Sheffield, K-State outlasted UCF, 5-4, Friday night at John Euliano Park to force a rubber match in the series finale.

After five scoreless innings, Smolinski put K-State on the board with a solo home run before the Wildcats erupted for four runs in the seventh, highlighted by AJ Evasco’s two-run blast and Smolinski’s second homer of the night.

“Great bounce-back win tonight. The boys love to play and love to compete,” said Hughes, who earned his 880th victory as a head coach, the most among active Big 12 coaches and the 12th-most among active Power 4 coaches. “Lincoln Sheffield set the tone for the entire night. He gave us another bulldog outing, and Ty Smolinski took another step in his growth and fired up our offense.”

In his fifth quality start of the season, Sheffield (7-3) turned in another dominant outing, holding the Knights to three runs over six shutout frames to earn his seventh win. The senior left-hander finished the nightcap scattering seven hits over his 6 1/3 innings, while striking out six and walking two. His seven victories tie the K-State single-season record for wins.

After relieving Sheffield in the seventh and allowing three hits, Aaron Arnold bounced back with a scoreless eighth before turning the ball over to Cohen Feser, who closed out the ninth for his third save of the season.

Thursday

UCF used a five-run seventh inning to pick up a 10-6 victory over K-State Friday night at John Euliano Park.

Tied 4-4, Stephen Chucka delivered an off the bench three-run double to drive in go-ahead run and lift UCF to a series-opening win.

“They more big hits than we did,” Hughes said in another statement. “Our guys battled to the end but it was the big inning that defined the game. We were unable to damage control that situation and that’s usually the difference in Big 12 games.”

Up next

K-State will enter the 2026 Big 12 Baseball Championships as the No. 11 seed and will face 10th-seeded Utah (26-24, 12-18 Big 12) at 8 p.m. PT/10 p.m. CT at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona. The entire 12-team championship field will be announced at conclusion of the league’s final game on Saturday.