Kansas State Baseball 2026 at Baylor

After a weird, and record-setting, opening weekend to Big 12 play, your Kansas State Wildcats will stay in the Lone Star State for one more game before headed back up to Kansas.

Last weekend, the BatCats were absolutely on fire in the Friday and Saturday games, earning two straight run-rule victories over Houston 20-7 and 16-1. Then, with a 6-5 lead headed into the bottom of the 8th on Sunday, the wheels, and everything else, came off as the combo of Tazwell Butler, Robert Fortenberry, and Adan Longoria gave up a combined 11 runs to the Cougars to fall 16-6 in what was also a run-ruled game. K-State still departed the weekend at 15-5 overall and 2-1 in Big 12, but with a sour taste over missing out on what should have been an opening-weekend sweep.

They’ll get a good chance to rinse that taste out with a layover in Waco for a technically-non-conference game against Baylor tonight. The Bears are 11-8, 1-2 on the season and are coming off a weekend that saw them win the Friday opener against #22 West Virginia before dropping a run-ruled 13-2 game on Saturday, and a 8-0 shutout on Sunday. The Bears picked up a bunch of losses in early season classics, but do have a solid 6-5 win in extra innings over then-#11 Ole Miss to hang their hat on.

Headed to the bump tonight for the Cats is senior righty Matt Flores, making his first start as a Wildcats after coming out of the bullpen versus Penn State, Louisiana, and SIUE. In three games of work, he’s pitched just over eight innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and just two free bases, while tossing nine strikeouts. The Californian has a season ERA of 3.24.

The Bears will send freshman Cayden Baker to the mound for his 7th appearance of the season. In eight innings of previous work, the right-hander from Mississippi has given up seven runs on nine hits and three walks, while tossing just four strikeouts. His current season ERA sits at 7.88, but has inched down after ballooning over 10 after his third appearance.

This is a game K-State should win — needs to win — after the way the Houston series ended on Sunday. Plus, with a hot-tossing Arizona State team on deck for this weekend, picking up some momentum headed home would be a huge boost.

Tonight’s contest is set for a 6:30pm start from Baylor Ballpark in Waco, and will be broadcast on ESPN+ with John Morris (play-by-play) and Matt Menard (analyst) covering the action there.

Tonight’s game will be available over-the-air on KMAN in Manhattan and streaming on the Varsity Network app and kstatesports.com/watch with Brian Smoller doing play-by-play.

Go Cats!