Kansas State baseball scored seven unanswered runs, highlighted by Dee Kennedy\u2019s record-breaking home run, to pull away with an 8-3 victory over Grand Canyon Tuesday afternoon at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark.<\/p>\n
K-State trailed early as GCU (14-26, 6-9 Mountain West) jumped out to a 3-1 lead behind a two-run homer in the first. The Wildcats (26-15, 9-9 Big 12) chipped away before Kennedy delivered a game-tying home run \u2013 his 17th of the year \u2013 to fuel a five-run sixth inning.<\/p>\n
Cohen Feser, who tossed four shutout innings to earn his second win of the season, alongside Adam Arther and Miles Smith backed the late surge, combining for seven scoreless innings to secure the team\u2019s 15th road victory of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cProud of our guys finishing up a tough road trip at this part of the season,\u201d head coach Pete Hughes said in a statement. \u201cFor us to win three out of four and still play with energy in hot and uncomfortable conditions was impressive. We played with great energy today in our fourth game, which was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCohen Feser let our offense get settled in and extend a lead, and we showed some great plate discipline and took advantage of some walks that kind of provided our scoring for today,” Hughes continued. “Cadyn Karl had a great day with eight put outs in center field and a triple short of the cycle. Overall, proud of our guys. Great effort on game four in the road trip.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his 17th homer of the season, Kennedy became the first junior in school history to reach the milestone, breaking the previous junior single-season home run record set by Heath Schesser in 1997. The Fort Worth native\u2019s mark also tied the program\u2019s all-time single-season record, as he became just the second Wildcat to reach 17, joining former teammate Keegan O\u2019Connor, who set the mark last season.<\/p>\n
“We’re excited for Dee,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cHe came to K-State to help us sustain our success and to be one of the best to wear the purple, and that’s exactly what he’s doing \u2013 with a lot more baseball to play.”<\/p>\n
How it happened<\/p>\n
GCU plated two in the opening frame with Cannon Perry\u2019s two-run blast to straightaway center.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Billy Gregory retired five consecutive Wildcats before surrendering a hit, as Cadyn Karl belted a solo blast 396-feet over the wall in centerfield to pull within one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jacob Limas relieved Gregory in the third, inheriting runners on first and second with one out. The Lopes\u2019 reliever forced a fly out to left for the second out, but AJ Evasco shot the first pitch he faced through the right side to push a run across the plate.<\/p>\n
Feser set down the Lopes in order in three consecutive innings before allowing a hit in the sixth. The right-hander finished the game retiring 13 of the 15 batters he faced before handing the ball over to Arther.<\/p>\n
After a scoreless fourth, the Wildcats leveled the score with Kennedy\u2019s 17th blast of the season.<\/p>\n
Tied 3-3, K-State erupted for five unanswered runs in the sixth inning. Bear Madliak scored the go-ahead run on bunt single from Cadyn Karl before GCU walked in a pair of runs to extend the Wildcats\u2019 lead. Kennedy and Evasco each drove in a run to cap the five-run inning surge.<\/p>\n
GCU threatened in the bottom of the inning, but Feser worked out of the bases loaded jam to preserve the lead.<\/p>\n
Kennedy named POY semifinalist<\/p>\n
K-State shortstop Dee Kennedy has been named a semifinalist for the 2026 Brooks Wallace Player of the Year Award, the College Baseball Foundation announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Kennedy is one of six players from the Big 12 Conference on the 50-man semifinalist list for the Brooks Wallace Award, which recognizes the nation\u2019s top shortstop based on both their offensive and defensive production. Finalist for the award will be announced later this year.<\/p>\n
With the honor, Kennedy becomes the fourth Wildcat in program history to be named a semifinalist, joining Drew Biery (2009), Austin Fisher (2013) and Nick Goodwin (2023).\u00a0<\/p>\n
A year after batting .279 with 43 RBI and 11 home runs, Kennedy has put together a dominant junior campaign, leading K-State in nearly every major offensive category, including batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs, hits, RBI, doubles, home runs and total bases.<\/p>\n
The Fort Worth product posts a slash line of .392\/.497\/.823 with 62 hits, including 13 doubles, two triples and a program-record 17 home runs. He has driven in 60 RBI, highlighted by a team-leading 17 multi-RBI games, while also recording 17 multi-hit performances.<\/p>\n
Kennedy\u2019s 17 home runs are the most by a junior in program history, while he is just the second player in school history to reach the milestone.<\/p>\n
Nationally, Kennedy ranks among the top performers in several categories, sitting third in runs scored, fifth in total bases (130) and sixth in RBI, while ranking seventh in slugging percentage. His 17 home runs are tied for 12th in the country. In the Big 12, he also ranks among the league leaders with 19 stolen bases, the second-most in the conference.<\/p>\n
This season, Kennedy was named to the Baseball America Midseason Player of the Year and USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List, which honors the nation\u2019s top amateur player. He has earned multiple weekly honors, including Golden Spikes Award x D1 Baseball Player of the Week and Big 12 Player of the Week (February 16). He was also named the Brooks Wallace Award Player of the Week and was selected to the Baseball America National Team of the Week and named the NCBWA Co-Hitter of the Week (February 17).<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
K-State (26-16, 9-9 Big 12) will return to Tointon Family Stadium for the annual Dillons Sunflower Showdown with the 16th-ranked Kansas Jayhawks (30-11, 14-4 Big 12), starting Friday at 6 p.m. CT. The entire showdown will broadcast on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kansas State baseball scored seven unanswered runs, highlighted by Dee Kennedy\u2019s record-breaking home run, to pull away with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,5,2316,2314,2313,2325,2330,2335,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,2307,2327,2321,185,2311,2312],"class_list":{"0":"post-681181","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-finals","13":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","14":"tag-baseball-teams","15":"tag-glossary-of-baseball-terms","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-team-sports","32":"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\/681181","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=681181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}