Kansas State Wildcats drop first baseball game of NCAA Tournament against UTSA
Kansas State baseball coach Pete Hughes likes to say that the first game of a tournament is by far the most important game that a college team will play over the course of a weekend.
With that in mind, the Wildcats face an uphill climb if they hope to advance to a Super Regional for the second straight year.
UTSA defeated K-State 10-2 in their first game of the Austin Regional on Friday at Disch-Falk Field on opening night of the NCAA Tournament.
That means the Bat Cats need to be perfect from here on out to keep their season alive. With the loss, K-State drops into the losers bracket of their four-team regional pod.
K-State will next play Houston Christian at 2 p.m. in an elimination game on Saturday. The winner of that contest will play at least one more do-or-die game on Sunday. The Wildcats will need to keep winning all the way until Monday, and potentially defeat host team Texas multiple times, to advance.
K-State was never in this game.
UTSA took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and methodically added to its lead throughout the night. The Road Runners led 3-1 after four innings but then broke things open with three runs in the sixth inning and four more in the seventh.
Things slipped away from K-State when UTSA right fielder James Taussig blasted a three-run homer against reliever Ty Ruhl in the bottom of the fifth inning. That gave the Road Runners a 6-1 lead, and the Wildcats weren’t able to mount a comeback.
Kansas State’s Nick English crushed a solo home run as a pinch hitter to make it 6-2 in the seventh inning, but UTSA pulled away even more afterward.
K-State did have some missed opportunities early. It loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the fourth inning and appeared to have something going when Dee Kennedy ripped a line drive down the third-base line. But the hard-hit ball went straight into the glove of UTSA third baseman Norris McClure and the Wildcats were only able to get one run out of the golden opportunity.
Jacob Frost started on the mound for K-State and pitched 5.1 innings, allowing five hits and five runs and four walks. But he did strike out five before being pulled at 99 pitches.
The Wildcats needed more on defense and offense to make this a competitive game and now have their backs against the wall.
This story was originally published May 30, 2025 at 9:36 PM.