Nick English\u2019s go-ahead three-run home run off the bench and Lincoln Sheffield\u2019s career-high 10 strikeouts fueled Kansas State baseball to an 11-1, eight-inning victory over Arizona Saturday night at Hi Corbett Field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Entering as pinch hitter in the seventh, English\u2019s 411-foot blast erased a one-run deficit and sparked the Wildcats\u2019 late surge. K-State (25-14, 9-8 Big 12) piled on in the eighth with an eight-run inning, highlighted by Dee Kennedy\u2019s grand slam to secure the team\u2019s eighth run-rule victory of the season and clinch the Big 12 road series.<\/p>\n
\u201cEbbs and flows of college baseball \u2013 that was as good a pitching duel as you’ll see and at this level for six innings,\u201d head coach Pete Hughes said in a statement. \u201cWe get a big pinch-hit off the bench from an unselfish kid, Nick English, the ultimate team player. If you saw in last night’s game, when [Bear Madliak] made that great block and feed to [Miles Smith], he was the first guy off the bench to congratulate Bear. That mindset puts him in a good situation to come through for his team, and he changed the course of the game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCan’t say enough good things about Lincoln [Sheffield],” Hughes continued. “That was as good a pitching performance as we’ve had against us since I’ve been the coach at Kansas State. Lincoln was able to match that performance to allow our offense to stay in it and break through in the seventh and eighth innings.”<\/p>\n
In his third quality start of the season, Sheffield (6-1) limited Arizona to one earned run on four hits over eight innings. The senior from Flowood, Mississippi, retired 25 of the 29 batters he faced and struck out a career-high 10. He finished his second complete game of the season, scattering four hits with no walks to earn his conference-leading sixth victory.<\/p>\n
Arizona\u2019s Smith Bailey delivered a dominant start, firing six scoreless innings of one-hit ball while striking out a career-high 15 of 21 batters faced. Bailey\u2019s 15 strikeouts are the most by an Arizona pitcher in more than 12 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut tonight doesn\u2019t happen without an unselfish player, Nick English and a great, great performance from Lincoln.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his grand slam in the eighth, Kennedy became the fifth Wildcat in school history to reach 16 home runs in a single season, tying the junior single-season record and is one short of matching the all-time single-season record.<\/p>\n
\u201cDee is an elite player, and you know he doesn\u2019t stay in ruts very long now,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cPeople are really stingy with him right now. He’s seeing everything, so he’s earning everything that comes his way, and he’s still having success. Not only does he get the big grand slam, but he’s hitting home runs and stealing bases for us, and he’s as dynamic a defender as you’ll see in college baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday<\/p>\n
K-State pitchers James Guyette, Adam Arther and Miles Smith combined for eight scoreless innings Friday night, as the Wildcats outdueled Arizona in a 2-1 victory at Hi Corbett Field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that was a great Friday night win all the way around. Our lineup, our bullpen \u2013 we made big plays all night, especially in pressure situations,” Hughes said in another statement. “The pitching staff was phenomenal and came up with big pitches when we needed them. They stranded a leadoff triple with no runs in the eighth inning, and that was the moment that won the game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
K-State trailed 1-0 entering the eighth inning before Grant Gallagher, who led off the frame with a single, scored on a passed ball to tie the game. The Wildcats took the lead in the ninth, as AJ Evasco doubled and later scored on Cadyn Karl\u2019s sacrifice fly for the go-ahead run. Reliever Miles Smith then slammed the door, retiring the side in order to secure the program\u2019s first win over Arizona in school history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAJ Evasco had a big night for us and got the big hit,” Hughes said. “We got a late run because of his leadoff double. Overall, it was a great team win on a Friday night, led by our pitching staff, which delivered from the first inning through the ninth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guyette tossed five scoreless innings before surrendering a run in the sixth. He struck out a game-high eight and allowed five hits before handing the ball over to Arther, who struck out three of five batters he faced.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s series finale is slated for a 2 p.m. CT first pitch and can be seen on ESPN+ and the ESPN app, while radio coverage is available on News Radio KMAN (93.3 FM, 1350 AM).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick English\u2019s go-ahead three-run home run off the bench and Lincoln Sheffield\u2019s career-high 10 strikeouts fueled Kansas State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,5,2316,2323,2313,2340,2325,2331,2330,2333,2335,19,2310,2328,2304,2308,4,2305,2303,2307,2320,185,2324,2350,2311,2312],"class_list":{"0":"post-679241","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-playoffs-and-champions","14":"tag-baseball-positions","15":"tag-baseball-teams","16":"tag-batting-order-baseball","17":"tag-glossary-of-baseball-terms","18":"tag-grass-field-surfaces","19":"tag-home-run","20":"tag-major-league-baseball","21":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","22":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","23":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","24":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","25":"tag-mlb","26":"tag-mlb-playoffs","27":"tag-mlb-postseason","28":"tag-outdoor-sports","29":"tag-pitcher","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-sports-events","32":"tag-strikeout","33":"tag-team-sports","34":"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\/679241","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=679241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}