It’s a slow progression back to the top, but Kansas State is climbing inch by inch up the mountain.

Since the Wildcats set a school-record 45 wins en route to a Big 12 title and a slot in the NCAA Tournament in 2013, they haven’t been back to that echelon. They were in the middle of a seven-season drought entering last season.

That rough patch came to an end in 2021, with K-State winning 34 games and playing spoiler in the postseason—making it to the Big 12 Tournament semifinals for the first time in a decade. But pieces behind that solid season are gone, putting the pressure on coach Pete Hughes to keep the boulder rolling in the right direction.

Will K-State get over the hump and find itself back in the top half of the league? That part is unknown, but take a peek at the personnel in Manhattan will try to make it happen. 

Hitting

You like long bombs? Then you’ll probably like the lineup Kansas State brings to the plate. The Wildcats finished second in the Big 12 last season in both home runs (89) and slugging percentage (.479) and had five different players hit double-digit home runs, including two that are returning to Manhattan for 2022. 

All-Big 12 Second Team selection and junior Dylan Phillips hit a team-high 16 homers last season, which equaled the program’s single-season record and puts him just seven home runs shy of breaking K-State’s all-time career record. He’ll be joined again by a fellow 57-game starter in sophomore Nick Goodwin (10 home runs, 33 RBI), who was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball after tying the school’s single-season freshman record for home runs—originally set by Phillips in 2019.

Creating general contact can improve across the lineup, as the Wildcats sat in the bottom half of the league with a .274 average, while last year’s far-away team batting champ—outfielder Zach Kokoska (.363)—is now in the Colorado Rockies’ organization. But the potential to go yard is going to make K-State a sneaky dangerous lineup throughout the year.

Pitching

All signs are pointing to it being redshirt sophomore Connor McCullough’s time to shine. The right-hander from Arkansas was a Cape Cod League All-Star in 2019, then earned himself a Freshman All-America nod by Collegiate Baseball in the shortened 2020 season after a 2.25 ERA in 24 innings. Things went a bit backward in 2021, as McCullough was fine (5-4, 4.77 ERA) in 15 starts but behind the pace of ace and All-Big 12 First Team selection Jordan Wicks, who had a 3.70 ERA and threw 118 strikeouts to McCullough’s 69. With Wicks now in the Chicago Cubs’ organization, it’s McCullough who threw the most innings of any Wildcat that returned and is now the most experienced arm by default. 

As for new faces, look out for JUCO transfer Landry Wideman, who was part of a rotation that helped McLennan Community College in Texas win the NJCAA Division I national title when he had eight saves and a 2.05 ERA in 2021. Others are catching eye of the redshirt sophomore’s potential, too, as Wideman was named one of D1Baseball’s Top 50 Impact JUCO Transfers this offseason.

X-Factor

As much as the Wildcats’ hitting power can excite fans and make for some fun scorelines—K-State scored double-digit runs in 14 games last year—it wasn’t a consistent solution in 2021, especially against Big 12 opposition. In fact, league teams were when the wheels fell off for the Wildcats, finishing 10-14 in the conference while allowing double-digit runs in eight of those defeats. Closing out games was a problem as K-State finished second-to-last in the Big 12 in saves (8) while tying for a league-low (with West Virginia) one shutout. 

It’s a long-winded way to say establishing consistency against the rest of the league must be the name of the game in 2022 for the Wildcats. K-State may have won its regular-season series against Texas Tech and took TCU to the brink in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals, but it was also run-ruled by last-place Kansas once and was outscored 40-5 over two games in the Baylor series. The Wildcats were picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, and until they can string together a few wins in a row against the rest of the league—K-State didn’t amass a Big 12 win streak over two games until the conference tournament—that feels like an adequate place to put the program.