Six homers, including multi-home run performances by Dee Kennedy and AJ Evasco, powered K-State to a 16-3 eight-inning victory over BYU Tuesday at Miller Park.<\/p>\n
K-State (19-10, 4-5 Big 12) scored 10 runs over the first five innings, which included three home runs in the opening frame. The Wildcats totaled 11 extra base hits, as eight players contributed a hit, including six with multiple.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat effort by our guys today,\u201d head coach Pete Hughes said in a statement. \u201cBouncing back was important. Our preparation didn’t change, and our energy was great again. Happy for our guys for getting the result. Robert Fortenberry was really good and was extremely efficient versus a dangerous offense. Our offense once again had a relentless performance. Again, proud of our guys and the way they show up every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy and Evasco each recorded two home runs in the non-conference matchup, both totaling a game-leading five RBI. Additionally, Grant Gallagher and Carlos Vasquez each homered. With the win, the Wildcats recorded their seventh run-rule victory of the season, while extending their streak to three consecutive wins over BYU (13-14, 4-5 Big 12) in the all-time series.<\/p>\n
Fortenberry logged three innings of one-run ball in his first start at K-State. The left-hander scattered just one hit against the 11 batters he faced, issuing one walk with three strikeouts before handing the ball over to Austin Haley, who improved to 2-0.<\/p>\n
How it happened<\/p>\n
Grant Gallagher led off the midweek contest with his fourth homer of the season, marking the program\u2019s first lead-off home run since last year. Shintaro Inoue followed with a bunt single, bringing Kennedy to the plate, where junior shortstop followed with two-run homer \u2013 his 13th of the season. Vasquez then belted a solo shot to left-center to stretch the lead to 4-0.<\/p>\n
Left fielder Ezra McNaughton put the Cougars on the board in the bottom of the inning with a solo shot to right.<\/p>\n
Back-to-back RBI doubles from Inoue and Kennedy extended the Wildcats\u2019 lead to 6-1. Evasco added to the home run total in the third inning with his third blast of the season \u2013 a 430-foot, two-run shot to right-center.<\/p>\n
Leading 11-3 headed into the eighth inning, K-State pushed its advantage into double figures with a two-run jack by Kennedy before Evasco delivered a three-run blast for the final blow.<\/p>\n
Aaron Arnold slammed the door on the Cougars\u2019 offense over the final two frames. The senior right-hander allowed just two hits and struck out three of the seven batters he faced.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
K-State will begin the April schedule of its 2026 campaign Friday night, when the Wildcats host TCU (17-10, 5-4 Big 12) in a three-game conference series at Tointon Family Stadium. The entire Big 12 series can be seen on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six homers, including multi-home run performances by Dee Kennedy and AJ Evasco, powered K-State to a 16-3 eight-inning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,5,2316,2323,2314,2313,2325,2335,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,2307,2327,2321,185,2350,2311,2312],"class_list":{"0":"post-655846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-athletic-sports","9":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-baseball-competitions","12":"tag-baseball-events","13":"tag-baseball-finals","14":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","15":"tag-baseball-teams","16":"tag-home-run","17":"tag-major-league-baseball","18":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","19":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","20":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","21":"tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","22":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","23":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","24":"tag-mlb","25":"tag-mlb-playoffs","26":"tag-mlb-postseason","27":"tag-outdoor-sports","28":"tag-seasons-in-american-sport","29":"tag-seasons-in-baseball","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-strikeout","32":"tag-team-sports","33":"tag-turf-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}