POSTGAME QUOTES | K-STATE K-State 6, Eastern Illinois 3 | March 5, 2021

PETE HUGHES, K-STATE HEAD COACH Opening Statement… “You always have a chance when you get a good start, a quality start again by Jordan (Wicks). I thought it was a solid game, honestly. When you play a game that gets rolling, it means you’re playing clean baseball. We made a couple of mistakes up in the zone. They took advantage of it and got back in the game. I’m still a little bit frustrated with what we’re doing offensively. I just have really high expectations for our guys offensively. 10 hits, feel good about a win, but everytime we go out there we’re trying to get Big 12 ready. We’re not there yet. That’s not slighting our opponent. That is a well coached team. My job is to get us to win the Big 12. It’s early. I have high expectations and standards for our guys. That’s why I’m a little bit frustrated, but we got some guys going. That was good, and it’s always good when you have Jordan on the mound on a Friday. It’s always great to win.”

On Jordan Wicks’ performance… “A pretty good mix. He had the with the velocity early on, and both sides of the plate. The was great to the right handers. A couple of lefties in that lineup struggled seeing his cutter/. Everything came off the fastball tonight and being able to work both sides of the plate. I thought he did a really good job of controlling the inner half on righties. When you do that with his changeup, that opens up the whole plate.”

On the offense swinging on 3-0 counts… “That’s my decision. Sometimes you’ve gotta get a guy going. We’re trying to get Ceballos going. I thought he had a couple of good swings early. I usually don’t give the green light 3-0 to the leadoff hitter in the inning, but it was Ceballos. We’ve gotta get that guy going. He’s getting a lot of confidence when his coach gives him the green light on 3-0, and that’s where I want our kids’ heads to be. He just missed the . Goodwin, gave him the 3-0, and that usually works out well for me. Phillips, I trust him too. That was a good call I thought. There was a runner on second with no outs. He just needed to get something pull side. He didn’t do what he wanted to do. If I had to take one back, it would probably be Ceballos. I just don’t like doing it with the leadoff hitter when you can build an inning with a walk. You’re letting the off the hook. Every move I make right now is to get these guys Big 12 ready. It’s a good question, because I can’t remember the last time I did it three times in a game.”

JORDAN WICKS, SOPHOMORE PITCHER On getting hits early in the count… “I think it just means we’ve got to start mixing quicker. There’s usually two schools of thought when facing me. They’re either sitting on one pitch or they are trying to ambush early on, and they were trying to ambush early on. They were a team that was really on the plate and we just had to make that adjustment and I think we made that adjustment pretty well.”

On jumping out to a 1-0 lead… “Yeah it’s always awesome when you can start off with a lead. It kind of relaxes you a little bit and you can just go out and attack guys. You don’t feel like you have to be perfect. These guys do a great job of making sure I have a lead pretty often. It gives you a lot of confidence in your offense.”

ZACH KOKOSKA, JUNIOR OF On his homerun… “You don’t really remember what you see when a moment like that happens. You just trust in your approach and trust your instincts and just let the barrel fly and good things will happen.”

On having a good performance in game one of a series…

“It’s awesome. Through everything you’ve just got to trust yourself and know you’re here at this level in an impact spot for a reason. And whatever adversity comes your way, whether it’s on the field or on the outside, you’ve just got to trust your approach and trust that the is your therapy area and you just need to go out and have fun and just perform and represent your school the right way.”