Kansas State Baseball 2026 Opening Weekend

It’s time to put away those winter blues — it’s baseball season!

Your Kansas State Wildcats, fresh off their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, take to the field in Arizona this weekend to open a 2026 season that has some lofty goals set.

The Wildcats return a bevy of starters from last season’s NCAA Tournament team, including 2025 Freshman All-American AJ Evasco in the outfield, as well as Dee Kennedy (who is moving over to shortstop after a strong run at third base), catcher Bear Madliak,

and second baseman Shintaro Inoue to the infield, and weekend starter Lincoln Sheffield back to his spot in the rotation on the mound. Outfielder/DH Kyan Lodice, who enters his 5th season with the Cats and was named a team captain, returns after injury shortened his 2025 campaign to just 28 games and will be joined off the injury list by RHP Carson Liggett, who was highly-touted as a transfer from Louisville before last season, but needed Tommy John surgery and was forced to miss the entire 2025 season.

Despite losing two players to the 2025 MLB Draft — shortstop Maximus Martin and LHP Jacob Frost — K-State returns nearly 50% of the offense in every major statistical category, including 54.7% of run production. On the mound, the Cats return 44.8% of wins and 49% of innings pitched.

The 2026 Wildcats are bolstered by a Top 25 transfer class, that’s headlined by East Tennessee transfer 3B Grant Gallagher, who earned D1Baseball.com’s nod as the preseason #1 third-baseman in the Big 12 and #11 nationally.

The Wildcats open their 2026 season at the MLB Desert Invitational based in Scottsdale, AZ, and will face off against Iowa (Friday, 2/13, 2pm CT), UConn (Saturday, 2/14, 6pm CT), Penn State (Sunday, 2/15, 1pm CT), and Air Force (Monday, 2/16, 2pm CT). The Wildcats should be expected to head out of this weekend with no less than a winning record, but preferably 4-0.

All four games this weekend will be available on KMAN in Manhattan and online at KStateSports.com/watch with Brian Smoller calling the action there. And all four *should* be available to watch on MLB.com, though K-State did not garner one of the games set to broadcast on the MLB Network.

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Game 1

This afternoon from Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, AZ, the Wildcats and Hawkeyes square off for the 28th time in a rematch of their last meeting which came at this very event in 2023 — a game the Hawkeyes took 6-5. But the Wildcats, somehow, hold a 17-10 margin all-time against the birds from Iowa, and will be looking to get the margin back up to eight behind the arm of James Guyette. Guyette was All-Big 12 Honorable Mention last season as a reliever after posting a 4.70 ERA in a team-leading 24 appearances (all out of the pen), and went 4-3 in games he helped decide. The junior righty also fanned 51 batters while giving up 27 walks.

The Hawkeyes are coming off a 32-22-1 2025 season where the notched a 21-9 mark in Big Ten play, but failed to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats will face RHP Tyler Guerin who posted a 7.02 ERA in 14 appearances with two starts for Iowa last season.

Game 2

Saturday night brings the toughest game of the invitational for the Wildcats, as they face preseason Big East favorites UConn at 6pm CT from Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, AZ. The Huskies went 38-21 overall in 2025 with a 17-4 record in the Big East, but neither were good enough to earn an at-large bid to the postseason alongside conference champ Creighton. Expected on the mound for the Huskies is LHP Cayden Suchy, who went 3-4 in nine appearances, four starts, with a 5.93 ERA in his freshman campaign in Storrs.

The Wildcats are expected to send sophomore Donte Lewis to the mound to open the contest. Lewis was a utility player for the Cats in his freshman season as a true two-way player, notching a 6.63 ERA with two wins in 12 appearances and three mid-week starts on the mound, while also playing in 37 games with 23 starts as a batter where he notched 17 hits and drew 13 walks for an OB% of .375 and also tallied seven stolen bases.

This is just the second meeting between UConn and K-State, with the Huskies taking the win in Storrs in 2024.

Game 3

Sunday afternoon the Wildcats will face off against the Nittany Lions at 1pm CT from Sloan Park in Mesa, AZ. Penn State is coming of a 2025 season that saw them go 33-23, notching their second-most wins in a season as a program, and the first time hitting the 30-win mark since 2011. K-State is 3-1 all-time against Penn State, though the two teams haven’t met since 2007 when the Wildcats posted a 4-1 win — two days shy of exactly 19 years before Sunday’s game.

The Nittany Lions are expected to send freshman righty Isaiah Shayter to the mound in his first start of his collegiate career. The Wildcats are slated to counter with lefty Lincoln Sheffield, who finished last season with four straight wins, including going 6.2 innings giving up just four hits while tossing six strikeouts in the Wildcats 7-4 win over Houston Christian in the 2025 NCAA Regional. The senior went 7-4 overall in 16 appearances, 15 starts, notching a 5.45 ERA as the regular Sunday starter in his debut season for the Wildcats in 2025.

Game 4

K-State takes on Air Force to close out the invitational on Monday at 2pm CT again from Sloan Park in Mesa, AZ. The Falcons went 20-34 overall last season and 12-18 in Mountain West play. K-State holds a 14-5 series lead, though it seems like the two programs have played more often than that record would indicate. The last time these squads met, back in 2023, they split a mid-week series in Colorado Springs.

Air Force has not named a starter for Monday’s game, while the Wildcats are expected to sent junior right-hander Tanner Duke to the mound. Duke posted a 4.97 ERA last year in his first season at K-State, going 2-3 with 13 appearances and seven starts, all in mid-week games.