After a struggle weekend against Oklahoma, the Red Raiders head into the Big 12 tournament as the No. 2 seed, drawing No. 7 Kansas State in the first round. Along with being in the same pod as the No. 3 Sooners and No. 6 West Virginia.
The Red Raiders will likely need to get out of this pod and into the championship game to really make a push at hosting. With an RPI ranking of 37, a strong showing is necessary.
The other side of the bracket will feature first round matchups between No. 1 TCU and No. 8 Baylor, along with No. 4 Oklahoma State and No. 5 Texas.
The Red Raiders had their way with Kansas State in the regular season, sweeping the series in Lubbock outscoring the Wildcats 27-9. Brandon Birdsell threw six innings of shutout ball while striking out 12 in the Saturday’s 14-0 win.
Against West Virginia, the Red Raiders took two of three at home in late April losing on Sunday in that series.
The Mountaineers and Wildcats met over the weekend and the series resulted in a sweep for West Virginia where the Mountaineers outscored K-State 35-9.
The team that has given the Red Raiders lots of problems this year has been the Sooners. This past weekend, Birdsell and Andrew Morris were roughed up by the Oklahoma lineup and the Red Raiders dropped two of three, dropping their head-to-head record against the Sooners to 1-3 this year.
Pitching:
The Red Raiders have been blessed with strong starting pitching this season, and despite the tough ending to the season both Morris and Birdsell had excellent regular seasons for Tech.
Birdsell ended the year with a 2.75 ERA with a 1.07 WHIP, good enough for second in the conference in both categories. Birdsell was also second in the conference in strikeouts, with 96 in 260 batters faced.
Morris, who has the most rest of the staff and is who I expect to start on Wednesday, finished the season with a 4.54 ERA, good for a top-ten finish in the category. If Morris hadn’t surrendered nine runs in five innings on Thursday, the junior would’ve finished with a 3.72 ERA in 70.1 innings.
Chase Hampton, who has been excellent in the month of May, finished the year with a 4.80 ERA. Hampton has turned in 15.2 innings in his last three starts, surrendering only four runs while striking out 25 batters which has seemingly provided an answer for the Red Raider Sunday slot.
The Red Raiders should expect to see K-State starter Blake Adams, who they torched for four earned runs in 1.2 innings in the opener of the regular season series, on Wednesday.
Hitting:
The most potent hitter in the Kansas State lineup is leadoff-hitting centerfielder Dominic Johnson. Johnson leads the team in OPS and stolen bases while being second in home runs with 11.
Usual designated hitter, but occasional reliever, Dylan Phillips leads the team in home runs while carrying a 2.93 ERA in 15.1 innings this season.
The Wildcats aren’t super active on the base paths and somewhat rely on the long ball to win games. If the Red Raider pitching staff can keep the ball in the yard, they should be in position to advance to the second round of the tournament.
