Virginia’s clutch hitting too much as Cavaliers end Kansas State baseball’s season

Kansas State baseball’s magical postseason run finally ran out of gas.

Host Virginia put on a clutch hitting clinic, scoring all of its runs with two outs and pulling away late for a 10-4 victory Saturday at Disharoon Park, in Charlottesville, Virginia.

With the win, No. 12 overall seed Virginia (46-15) swept the Charlottesville Super Regional in two games and will advance to the College World Series in Omaha. K-State, making just its second super regional appearance in program history, finished with a 35-26 record.

Virginia never trailed in the game, scoring twice in the first inning. K-State came back to tie it at 2-2 in the second, but a two-run fourth put the Cavaliers in front for good.

Virginia took a 5-4 lead to the final inning and then blew it open with a five-run ninth.

Jay Woolfolk (4-1) was the winning pitcher for Virginia and Chase Hungate got his second save, while K-State starter Jackson Wentworth took the loss.

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Kyan Lodice led K-State’s offense with a triple and home run. Brendan Jones also homered for the Wildcats. Casey Saucke and Henry Ford had two hits each for Virginia.

K-State reached the super regional by sweeping three games last week in the Fayetteville Regional but could not duplicate that effort against a strong Virginia team.

Here are three takeaways from the Wildcats’ season-ending loss.

Aggressive base running backfires for Wildcats

True to form, K-State remained aggressive in the seventh inning when Jaden Parsons drew a leadoff walk with the Wildcats trailing 4-3. This time it could have cost them a tying run.

Parsons was caught stealing, and Chuck Ingram followed with a double to the wall in left center. At worst, the Wildcats would have had runners at second and third with nobody out, but instead Ingram was stranded at second when reliever Angelo Tonas got pinch hitter Danniel Rivera and Jones on fly balls to center.

Virginia’s Jay Woolfolk outduels K-State starter Jackson Wentworth

Kansas State starting pitcher Wentworth was solid, throwing 99 pitches and allowing four runs on eight hits over six innings while striking out five and walking two. Trouble is, Virginia counterpart Woolfolk was even better.

Woolfolk scattered six hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over his 6 1/3 innings, giving up three runs. He came in with a 6.15 earned run average, but has been money in the NCAA Tournament, holding Mississippi State to two runs in eight innings in the regional final.

K-State manufactures early runs

After spotting Virginia a pair of runs in the top of the first, K-State turned to its signature small ball to tie it after two innings.

Jones led off the bottom of the first with a walk, stole second, moved to third on Lodice’s bunt and scored on Kaelen Culpepper’s sacrifice fly to deep center.

In the second inning, Nick English led off with a single and moved to third on David Bishop’s base hit. After Bishop stole second, Parsons got the RBI on a ground out to shortstop.

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.