Slow Start Hurts Baseball In Loss At Kansas State

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State jumped out to an early lead and pulled away late after a TSU rally to claim game two of the series Saturday afternoon.

With one out in the bottom of the first, Kansas State hit a solo homer for the early lead and TSU couldn’t get out of the inning despite two outs as they issued three walks and two singles to trail 3-0. Two homers and an RBI triple by Kansas State fueled a five-run second followed by another homer in the third for a 9-0 lead.

TSU scored its first run in the fourth on a Dean Salazar RBI single which scored Herbert Watts. An error in the fifth led to another KSU run but TSU fought back and cut the deficit in half in the sixth. Tyrese Clayborne drew a leadoff walk, stole second and scored on a wild pitch. Salazar drove in his second run of the game followed by a two-out, two-RBI single by Nic Garza for a 10-5 margin. Kansas State pulled away in the seventh with three runs before TSU answered with an Oscar Ponce solo shot for its sixth run. The Wildcats tacked on two more in the eighth for the 15-6 final margin.

Ponce and Salazar both had two hits with Salazar driving in two runs and Ponce scoring twice. Brian Williams was tagged with the loss as he went five innings before giving way to Adolf Castillo and Kevin Garcia.

The series concludes tomorrow with a 1 p.m. first pitch.