It’s Opening Day in Manhattan, KS! Your Kansas State Wildcats are finally at the friendly confines of Tointon Family Stadium to open the home portion of their 2026 schedule.
This weekend, the BatCats are set to face off against the Columbia Lions. Coming off two-straight seasons as regular season champs, and winning the 2025 tournament to advance as the league’s auto-bid, the Lions were voted as the 2026 Ivy League preseason favorites, but enter this weekend at 0-3 after dropping their opening series
to Mercer. Columbia put up plenty of runs in Georgia last weekend, but gave up lots more, going 8-14, 6-20, and 4-5 in the series.
So now the Lions are in Manhattan for a three game set against K-State (6-3), who is looking to get back on track after a poor showing at the plate and on the bases earlier this week in Louisiana. The Cats pen shined, but the bats struggled to find the ball and when they did, over-aggressive base running often cost the Wildcats offense.
We’ll see if K-State learned anything from that effort down south.
This weekend’s series has been modified due to potential winter-weather conditions on Sunday, so we’ve now got a Friday double-header from Tointon Family Stadium, with the finale on Saturday afternoon. It’s going to be a fantastic couple days for baseball in Kansas, with highs in the low 70’s for Friday, and mid-60’s for Saturday.
Both Friday games will be broadcast on ESPN+ via production from K-StateHD.TV, with Matt Walters (play-by-play) and Mike Clark (analyst) covering the action there. It appears that K-State will not be broadcasting Saturday’s game, despite there being no conflicts on the schedule (the home men’s basketball game is later in the evening).
All three games will be available on KMAN in Manhattan and streaming on the Varsity Network app and kstatesports.com/watch with Brian Smoller (play-by-play) and Trevor Hurley (analyst) calling the action on Friday, and Matt Walters replacing Hurley on Saturday.
Game 1
Game one of the series is now set for a 2pm CT first pitch from Tointon Family Stadium. James Guyette appears to have the Friday spot locked up, and will look to improve both his 1-1 record and 4.91ERA. Last time out, the junior righty gave up two runs on six hits in six innings of work in the loss to Auburn, but that was actually an improvement after giving up four runs on eight hits in the season opener to Iowa. He’ll need a performance like against Auburn to keep the Lions at bay until the bats wake up.
The Wildcats will face sophomore Alex Sotiropoulos in his second start of the season. The right-hander went four innings against Mercer last Friday, giving up one run on no hits — walking 6 batters instead. In fact, when he went to the bench after the fourth, the Lions were up 8-1 over the Bears — the pen gave up 13 runs between the 6th and 8th innings. The Wildcats need to show good plate discipline, not be too over-aggressive on the base paths, and get to the Columbia pen as early as possible.
Game 2
The second game of the Friday double-header will start approximately 45 minutes following the conclusion of the first game. In an expected move, Donte Lewis has been replaced in favor of Carson Liggett as the “Saturday” starter. The senior righty has been absolutely phenomenal out of the pen in his first two appearances, going 5 innings against UConn where he gave up just two hits while tossing five strikeouts, and going four and a third against Nebraska giving up just one hit and three strikeouts. Oh yeah, and his ERA is still a perfect 0.00. Hopefully the move to the start, his first since transferring from Louisville, won’t negatively affect his performance.
Set to counter for the Lions is junior Tomas Lopez. The right-hander made his first start of the season, and just second of his career last Saturday, where he went three innings, giving up five runs on five hits and four walks to take the loss for Columbia. He pitched into the fourth, but was pulled before recording any outs.
Game 3
Saturday’s rubber match is set for a 1pm CT start, and the Cats will send “Sunday” starter Lincoln Sheffield to the mound to put a cap on the series. The senior lefty started out very well, going five innings while giving up just two earned runs (three total) on eight hits and five strikeouts in his season opener against Penn State. But Sheff fell back to Earth a bit in his second start last weekend, going 6.2 innings and only throwing 80 pitches, but giving up four earned runs (six total) on nine hits and throwing just one strikeout in the K-State victory. Thanks to the K-State offense, he was credited with the win in both games.
Columbia is expected to send RHP Thomas Santana to the mound to finish the series. The senior was a regular starter for the Lions last season, and has made starts every season since he was a true freshman. This season he started out poorly, giving up five runs on seven hits and just two strikeouts in five innings of work last Sunday to take Columbia’s third loss. Last season his ERA was 5.84, but he has shown ability to string together some shutout innings from time to time. But the BatCats will need to be swinging, as he doesn’t give up a ton of walks.
