Kansas State Baseball Preview: Final Super Regional Game Tonight Against Oregon State
By Dave Thoman
Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports
After stunning Oregon State in the 10th inning of its first Super Regional game with four runs to take the first meeting 6-2, K-State appeared to be the team of destiny BatCat supporters were hoping for. K-State fell back to earth a bit during game two, when the Beavers put up five runs in the first inning en route to a 12-4 victory. The two squads now find themselves faced with the same scenario tonight: win and move on to Omaha; lose and go home.
After outhitting Oregon State in the first contest, K-State struggled to put the ball in play while recording only six hits to 21 for its opponent. Fortunately, the Wildcats will get their chance against a new arm tonight. Oregon State’s Andrew Moore demonstrated why he was named a freshman All-American this year. Sitting at 13-1 on the season going into the game, Moore went eight innings while striking out nine and allowing three earned runs. K-State’s starting pitching had a harder time getting going, as freshman Blake McFadden (6-3) allowed hits from four of the six batters he faced and a home run sent him to the bench for the night.
Neither team has announced its starting pitcher for tonight’s game. In addition to McFadden, Joe Flattery will likely be unavailable after pitching the first five innings of Saturday’s game. Freshman phenom Jake Matthys notably rested his arm yesterday after throwing 21 pitches over two innings on Saturday. He has not started a game this year but is 9-1 with a team-best 1.89 ERA. With coach Brad Hill looking to pull out all the stops in securing the school’s first-ever College World Series berth, Matthys could see significant time on the mound tonight. Matt Wivinis, who leads the team in starts this year (14) has only pitched one inning this series. He faced three batters over one inning last night and threw 12 pitches. He was the only Wildcat not to allow a hit or a run Sunday.
The scheduled start time for the game has been moved up to 9 p.m. (CT) Monday. It will be televised on either ESPN2 or ESPNU and broadcast on the K-State Sports Radio Network.