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[Herdsmen11]

Hard to believe the season starts this Saturday when the Cats take on Cal State. The Big XII is stacked as always this year, but I like our chances to compete. There are a lot of big names returning this year, but the bullpen is going to be the most interesting to watch since James Allen, Marshall and Hunter are all gone.

[Lynch]

Yeah the bull pen might be hurting, but we had a lot of young talent last year. Should give us another trip to regionals at least.

[KSUftw]

I am not really big into college baseball, but I thought I heard a lot about our team not only improving from last year, but competing for a Big 12 title?  Any truth to it?  I do enjoy catching a game if they are ever on TV.

[Lynch]

WILDCAT BASEBALLERS SET TO OPEN YEAR

February 16, 2012

By Mark Janssen

You pick the word - rebuilding or reloading - but there are plenty of significant holes to fill this year in the Kansas State baseball camp even with 17 returning lettermen, seven position starters and seven pitchers back in camp.
 
With the season-opener coming up this weekend in Bakersfield, Calif., head coach Brad Hill will be trying to replace over 200 hits and exactly half of last year's 36 mound wins in 2012. Advancing to professional baseball from last year's team were headliners Jason King and Nick Martini at the plate, plus bullpen aces Evan Marshall and James Allen, in addition to starter Kyle Hunter.

That leaves Hill to ask, "Who are the major players that are going to step up? That is the question. We do have a lot of guys that have played a lot of innings and have been key players for us. Now we really need two or three of those guys to be the feature guys, and it's their time to do that."

While without star-status, Hill points to a seven-man senior class that has provided early leadership during the fall-ball season and early practice sessions.
 
"We're playing hard, playing with a passion and playing unselfishly," said Hill. "Those are all characteristics that you look for every year. If you have to instill those things into a team, you have some problems. We haven't had to speak of those areas, so what we're worrying about going into the year is just polishing up some rough edges."
 
Among those are, "Are we going to be able to throw strikes, are we going to be able to bunt the ball, and are we going to be able to handle adversity."
 
Another area that Hill does not have to focus on entering a season is the expectation of winning. That has been engrained in the last three seasons when K-State has reached the first three NCAA Regionals in the history of the school.
 
"There is an expectation to win that no longer needs to be emphasized," said Hill.
 
STARTING FOR THE `CATS: A potential starting lineup for the Wildcats would be senior Dan Klein (.302) at catcher, senior Wade Hinkle (.308) at first base, sophomore Ross Kivett (.314) at second base, senior Jake Brown (.260) at shortstop, and senior Matt Giller at third base. Giller played in just 26 games last season due to injury.

Of Hinkle, Hill said, "He needs to be in the lineup every day. He can really be a physical presence in the middle of our lineup. He needs to be there, but he needs to improve his defense at first base so we can feel good about putting him there every day and leave him in there in the eighth and ninth innings."
 
And of Kivett, he added, "Ross defines who we want to be," commented Hill. "He's going to play as long as he can and as hard as he can. He will do whatever it takes for the team to win a game. He's also fiercely competitive, and that's why he gets in the lineup."
 
Fixtures in the outfield will be sophomore Jared King (.307) in center, while senior Mike Kindel (.243) and junior Jon Davis and junior Tanner Witt will vie for innings in right and left field.

"You hope Jared can use a season like last year to realize he's a good player at this level, but he needs to understand that he needs to get better and remain hungry," Hill said. "You also hope that doesn't put pressure on him to try to be better and duplicate what he did. He just needs to go play and be who he is. If he does that, he'll have a great year for us because he's pretty special."

King was a second-team All-Big 12 performer in 2011, the first Wildcat freshman to be named either first- or second-team all-conference since 1973 as he hit .307 with 12 doubles, eight home runs and 40 RBI. He led all Big 12 freshmen in home runs last season en route to freshman All-America honors and finished two shy of the K-State freshman record.
 
"Offensively, we'll have good team speed that will allow us to do a lot of things, but we also seem to have good power, which has shocked me," said Hill of seven early-scrimmage home runs. "If we can understand the importance of bunting, I think we can create some havoc with our speed and the guys who we have that can handle the bat."
 
ON THE MOUND: Arms must be found to replace five-game winners Justin Lindsey and Kyle Hunter, plus all-Big 12 caliber relievers in Marshall (5-5, 1.62) and Allen (3-1 1.35).
 
Matt Applegate (5-5, 4.63) and Shane Conlon (4-1, 4.42) are the lone Big 12 quality starters, while also back are mid-game relievers Kayvon Bahramzadeh (3-0, 5.27) and Gerardo Esquivel (1-2, 2.55).
 
Late-inning candidates include Johnny Fasola and Nate Williams.
 
"They don't have James Allen's composure or Evan Marshall's competitiveness, but they have the stuff that it takes to win," said Hill.
 
Overall Hill said of his mound staff, "The pitching staff is full of a lot of unknown guys. We have a lot of guys with experience and guys that have had success, but you're looking at guys that have not put up numbers that we can say, `This is a guy that we can rely upon every time out.' So, the pitching staff is a real unknown. But what's exciting is that there is some talent there. There's no question there is some talent there."
 
OPENING OUT WEST: K-State will open the year on Feb. 18-19-20 at CSU Bakersfield with each game starting at 4 p.m. (central time).
 
The Wildcats will stay out west for two games against San Diego State, one against San Diego and one against Oregon State in the San Diego Tournament from Feb. 23-26.
 
"It's a time where we want to grow up and see how competitive we are," said Hill of the opening trip to the west coast. "There are some good RPI wins out there if we can get them. I hope we see some positive things from our leaders and that we play hard and with toughness."
 
HOME OPENER: K-State will open its home season on March 2-3-4 against Pacific.
 
LOOKING DOWN THE ROAD: K-State's Big 12 schedule this year will have home dates with Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Kansas, and road series at Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas Tech.
 
While no longer in the Big 12, K-State will continue playing Nebraska with three games, plus the Wildcats will play Wichita State at home on April 24 and at Wichita on May 1. In addition, a non-conference game with Kansas will be played in Lawrence on April 25 to go along with Big 12 play in Manhattan on May 11-12-13.

[Herdsmen11]

Tough weekend for the Cats. Despite an exciting win in extra innings on Saturday to open the season they got blasted on Sunday and Yesterday. Cal-State Bakersfield was ranked just two spots below the Cats to start the season so these teams are very comparable. I would assume, that as the season progress, we will nail down a better rotation from the bullpen, as well as the the players will continue to develop.

[Lynch]

Yeah they don't really show the games when I can see them. Hopefully it is just rotational issues that need to be ironed out. Wish this would have been resolved in training, but I guess you never know till it counts.

[Herdsmen11]

The Cats are off to a rough start, although they did pick up the series win last weekend against Pacific they currently sit at 5 - 6 after dropping last night's game against Nebraska. Pitching is really hurting us at the moment despite Kayvon turning in some solid performances. The Cats play Hartford this weekend in a 4 game series. They need a sweep to help pad the stats and hopefully iron things out.

[Lynch]

Haven't been following, how is conference play going?

[Herdsmen11]

So far there has only been two conference series, both of which the cats lost the series. We played #8 Texas A&M away winning the first game, then dropping the last two. Last weekend we played #20 Texas here in the Hat, once again winning the first game but dropping the last two. We played them to extra innings on Saturday. To make things worse we travel to #24 Oklahoma. In the in-between time, we dropped both away games at Nebraska, and rained out of a game with Creighton. They are 13-11 on the season.

It should be noted that the Big XII is stacked as usual this year, but we are hitting the meat of the schedule early. The Cats should easily still finish above .500, and the pitching has become more consistent.