ARLINGTON, Texas (K-State Athletics) – A record-breaking outing from left-hander Owen Boerema and an explosive seven-run fourth led No. 6 seed K-State to an 8-4 triumph over fourth-seeded West Virginia Wednesday in an elimination game at Globe Life Field.
Boerema’s complete game set the record for the longest outing in the NCAA game held at Globe Life Field, while he also became the first pitcher in K-State history to throw a complete game in a conference tournament.
“Life in the loser’s bracket is all about surviving, advancing, not panicking, having people pick up each other, and save your bullpen,” said head coach Pete Hughes following his team’s tournament win. “Those are the themes you think about as a head coach in the loser’s bracket. Luckily, we have a team and a foundation of our pitching staff that does not panic when bases are loaded with no outs in the first inning in the loser’s bracket because we’ve got a great competitor and a confident leader on the mound who continues to throw out zeros by settling in, believing and giving his offense time to get back in their game.”
In his 17th start of the season, Boerema struck out 10 batters and scattered seven hits in his career-long outing, as he held the Mountaineers to four earned runs (6-3). The lefty graduate’s 10 strikeouts are the most by a Wildcat in a single conference tournament game, breaking the previous record of nine.
Boerema’s 17th start set a new program record as just seven pitchers in K-State history have started in 16 games in a single season.
“I’ll just give a lot of credit to our pitching coach [Rudy Darrow]. It’s so difficult to call pitches when you have to maneuver your way through a lineup four-five times with the best hitter in our conference. That constant attention to detail and changing of patterns, it was as good a repertoire I saw in the field between the pitching coach calling a game and a pitcher I’ve seen in a long time,” Hughes mentioned.
Trailing 3-0 heading into the fourth inning, K-State (32-23) sent 13 batters to the plate and rallied for seven unanswered runs led by back-to-back two-RBI hits from Brady Day and David Bishop.
Offensively, six different Wildcats generated a hit Wednesday led by a two-hit day from Kyan Lodice, who went 2-for-4 with a pair of bunt singles. Bishop drove in a game-high three runs followed by Day with two, while Brendan Jones scored twice for the Cats.
“Obviously, the key to that whole game was Owen’s performance. Absolutely. Number one. Number two, not panicking early in the game and trusting your offense and being super disciplined at the plate, getting the walk to be a weapon for us again and take advantage of the inning. These are the things we haven’t done up late, but it doesn’t happen without Owen unselfishly going beyond his normal pitch count so we can save our bullpen for future games. It was as good as a performance that I’ve been around so it was awesome to watch.”
West Virginia’s (33-22) pitching staff issued 11 walks to K-State, marking the Wildcats’ second game this season with double digit walks.
K-State will face ninth-seeded TCU (32-20) in an elimination game Thursday at 9 a.m. at Globe Life Field.
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