It’s been 248 days since Pete Hughes pulled off his Kansas State uniform for the final time after a 2025 baseball season that ended with a second consecutive look in an NCAA Regional. Hughes now sits on a folding chair in the staff assembly room at Tointon Family Stadium for the staff’s media day occasion, flanked by 4 gamers, and for the subsequent half-hour discusses the Wildcats — and the way far they might go in 2026.
“We’ve proven we can beat anybody in the country in a single game, and we’ve proven that we can beat anybody in the country in a two-out-of-three series,” Hughes says. “I inform our guys each week they’re an Omaha staff, however we will not get into the means of ourselves, and should do the little issues, and love every thing about being a Ok-State baseball participant.
“We can’t get in our own way, because we’re talented enough, deep enough and hungry enough to be an Omaha team.”
Hughes, who enters his eighth season at Ok-State, is the winningest lively Big 12 Conference head baseball coach with 820 profession victories, which ranks 13th amongst lively Power 4 head coaches, and he is the solely lively NCAA Division I coach to have served as head coach at 4 Power 4 applications — with stops at Boston College (1999-2006), Virginia Tech (2007-2013) and Oklahoma (2014-2017). He has posted 25 profitable seasons in 28 years as a head coach, together with all seven seasons at Ok-State, taking the Wildcats to the 2024 NCAA Super Regional and 2025 NCAA Regional.
Large matte silver lettering posted alongside an overhang in his workplace reveals that the 57-year-old native of Brockton, Massachusetts, is not letting down anytime quickly.
“THE OMAHA STANDARD,” the silver letters beam.
Ok-State junior right-hander James Guyette lets or not it’s identified that the Wildcats imply enterprise.
“Looking back on the two years we’ve gone to regionals, I know what it takes to get to the postseason, and this team has what it takes,” Guyette says. “We have the talent, depth and a very talented hitting lineup. We have what it takes. It’s just a matter of doing it when it matters.”
After ending with a 35-26 report, together with a 15-15 mark in the Big 12, and reaching the 2024 NCAA Super Regional, Ok-State confronted challenges final season. Virtually the total beginning lineup was gone, together with three MLB Draftees that included the finest nearer in faculty baseball. And but, Hughes and his teaching workers pieced collectively a hard-nosed squad that fought, and fought exhausting, and the Wildcats had been battle examined by enjoying one in every of the hardest schedules in America, and so they completed 32-24 general, together with 17-13 in the Big 12, posting their most convention victories in historical past, and received again into the NCAA Regionals for a second straight season.
And but, silence emits from throughout the faculty baseball nation heading into the 2026 season.
Could or not it’s the sound of disrespect?
“Do we have a chip on our shoulder? Absolutely,” Hughes says. “That’s who we’re. We’re Kansas State baseball. We’re a bubble staff earlier than the season begins and someway, they are going to put us on that bubble irrespective of our physique of labor. That’s simply who we’re proper now. It motivates us.
“Until you start stacking years and years of knocking on the door at Omaha, then you’ll get the respect of a program that has great tradition. We’re fighting a lot of these things right now, but we do every year and we can only control what we can control and that’s being really good on Friday against Iowa, playing great on the road, and continuing to establish a home-field presence, and to be consistent from February until the beginning of June, and then we won’t be considered that seventh-place team that has no prospects. Believe me, we have no problem with that right now because we know who we are.”
Coming off its third straight 30-win season, Ok-State returns 21 gamers, together with 17 letterwinners, from final season. The listing of key returners begins with sophomore infielder/outfielder AJ Evasco, who earned D1Baseball Freshman All-America honors after handing over a record-breaking debut season by setting Ok-State freshman data with 11 residence runs and 52 RBI. Senior infielder Shintaro Inoue, junior infielder Dee Kennedy, senior catcher Bear Madliak, senior outfielder Kyan Lodice and sophomore pitcher/outfielder Donte Lewis determine closely into the combine as effectively.
“Year one was a lot,” Lewis says. “I just learned to really hone in on focusing on the skills that’ll help me on both sides. It’s going to be a heavy load this year but I’m excited.”
The Wildcats additionally introduced in 12 transfers. That contains senior outfielder Robby Bolin (Nebraska), redshirt senior right-hander Cohen Feser (TCU), senior right-hander Matt Flores (UC Riverside), senior left-hander Robert Fortenberry (Mississippi State), senior infielder Grant Gallagher (Tennessee State), junior infielder/right-hander Austin Haley (Murray State), graduate catcher Shea McGahan (Southeast Missouri) and redshirt senior infielder Carlos Vasquez (Western Kentucky).
“You have to build into the culture that’s been built,” says Madliak, who transferred from Jacksonville State final season. “I knew this was a great place. You might think why a boy from Georgia would come to K-State, but I’ve been to two different schools and have had three different coaches, and this is by far the best place I’ve been to. You buy in and listen to your coaches, and they’re going to have your back. I love these guys. Just buy into the culture.”
Perhaps no present Ok-State participant understands the baseball tradition higher than Lodice, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, who embarks upon his fifth 12 months with the program.
“Coming in here my freshman year, Kansas State was never a baseball school,” Lodice says. “We’ve flipped this program round completely. It’s a day by day factor we speak about, having a chip on the shoulder, whether or not it is in follow or on the area, and all of us share the identical perception. Having a chip on our shoulder pushes us farther and farther.
“Talent wise, we have it, and we have the depth, and without those things, having a chip on our shoulder would mean nothing to us. It’s going to help us succeed and get to higher places.”
Oftentimes final 12 months, Ok-State despatched pictures greater and better over the scoreboard. Ok-State hit a school-record 97 residence runs in 2025.
Could the Wildcats’ energy hitting return in 2026?
“I think so,” Hughes says. “The key is to get better every year. We’re a lot deeper than we were offensively last year. I’m used to playing nine or 10 guys, and that number has jumped to 12 or 13 guys in the mix, which gives you really good matchups. That power component will be there again. We’ll see a lot of pitches, control the strike zone, get on base, put pressure on people, and that power component is right there.”
The pitching workers is one in every of the deepest below Hughes, who is undecided precisely who will take the mound the first week of the season.
The listing of potential choices begins with Guyette, who was second on the staff with a 4.70 ERA in 51.2 innings pitched and had 51 strikeouts whereas rating 10th in the Big 12 in saves en path to incomes All-Big 12 Honorable Mention accolades. Senior left-hander Lincoln Sheffield had a team-leading 15 begins and was second on the staff with 70 strikeouts final season. Feser held opponents scoreless in 10 of 18 appearances final season at TCU. Flores started his profession at Hawaii and spent the final two seasons at UC Riverside the place he had a 3.66 ERA (16 ER, 39.1 IP) final season. Redshirt junior right-hander Tanner Duke, who transferred from Baylor after the 2024 marketing campaign, posted 35 strikeouts in 38 innings pitched whereas issuing simply 15 walks final season. Redshirt junior sidewinder lefty Cole Wisenbaker is again after lacking final season as a consequence of harm however made 22 reduction appearances in 2024. Redshirt senior right-hander Tazwell Butler recorded 24 strikeouts in 26 2/3 innings pitched with simply 9 walks final season. Eich involves Ok-State from Division II Barry University, the place he boasted a 4.78 ERA in 15 weekend begins whereas surrendering 40 earned runs over 75.1 innings.
“We have a super-competitive pitching staff right now with a lot of returning veteran guys who’ve been in the heat of the battle,” Hughes stated. “It hasn’t actually sorted itself out, however it should. It may range from weekend to weekend with matchups and who we’re enjoying and amenities we’re enjoying in. We have the luxurious of seven or eight guys who’re fairly proficient and battle examined who may make up our rotation in some unspecified time in the future.
“Right out of the gate, at Louisiana, somebody important on our pitching staff is going to be pitching those games, and it’s going to be on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Are we going to have a clear-cut Friday, Saturday, Sunday rotation like last year? Today, I’d say it’s going to vary, and that speaks volumes to the depth of our pitching staff.”
Redshirt senior right-hander Carson Liggett, who transferred from Louisville, returns after lacking final season at Ok-State as a consequence of Tommy John surgical procedure and could possibly be a starter or maybe a nearer — however Hughes and pitching coach Rudy Darrow are being cautious.
“Carson Liggett is as superior in his rehab post-Tommy John as any pitcher I’ve ever coached,” Hughes says. “At seven months, he was full go. It’s amazing. I’ve never seen a kid at seven months with a stronger arm and touch and feel for four pitches. That’s where Carson was at seven months. He’s at nine months right now. We’re going to be careful with him. Even though he’s done great things in his rehab, we’ll still error on the safe side with Carson, but he’ll certainly pitch weekend one for us at some point.”
The journey by way of the 2026 marketing campaign fires up when Ok-State faces Iowa on Opening Day on February 13 at the MLB Desert Invitational in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Wildcats’ four-day occasion can even characteristic video games towards UConn, Penn State and Air Force. The Wildcats’ 55-game schedule contains 9 opponents that superior to the 2025 NCAA Regional, whereas Auburn and West Virginia went to the Super Regional, and Arizona went to the College World Series. In complete, Ok-State will face 9 groups — 22 video games — that completed with an RPI of fifty or decrease in 2025, whereas two had been ranked in the closing D1Baseball Top 25 ballot. Ok-State will play midweek non-conference video games at Baylor (March 17) and at BYU (March 31) to proceed constructing its RPI as effectively.
Ok-State performed one in every of the nation’s hardest schedules final season with a view to appease the RPI metric and fulfill members of the NCAA Tournament choice committee.
This season? Ok-State performs its first 9 video games on the highway. It begins in the MLB Desert Invitational, then towards Auburn, Nebraska and Michigan in the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series, and at last back-to-back video games at Louisiana. Ok-State’s residence opener towards Columbia is on February 27 at Tointon Family Stadium.
“I’m constantly trying to build our RPI, and you do that through non-conference opportunities,” Hughes says. “In this a part of the nation, it is effectively documented we do not have nice non-conference RPI alternatives in Kansas, so it’s important to be artistic with the schedule. In the previous, we have gotten on a aircraft and gone to Tennessee or Clemson midweek to ramp up our RPI to enhance our resume so we will get on the bubble or off the bubble, nonetheless you method it. At the finish of the day, the RPI is a metric that is means too vital in the course of, however till that adjustments, I’ll proceed to schedule the means we’re doing. The means we do this is we jack up our non-conference RPI.
“We play a tough schedule. It’s always a difficult situation because you want more home games, but at the end of the day, we’re hired to get into the national tournament so we can get hot and go to Omaha. Getting away from home a little bit with the RPI is the most efficient way for us to put ourselves into position to play in the national tournament at the end of the year. That’s what motivates that scheduling.”
Ok-State will look to start its profitable methods on Opening Day towards Iowa subsequent Friday in Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona. The 2026 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament Selection Show to announce the 64-team regional area and host websites is scheduled for May 25.
In between will probably be a complete lot of intrigue — once more.
“Something different this year than any other year is the amount of experience and older players we have on this team,” Lodice says. “That’s going to play a fair greater function this 12 months with the quantity of expertise now we have coming from different colleges and the older guys who’ve performed a lot of baseball. That’s going to hone in on much more June baseball for us.
“Going to a Super Regional and a Regional, this team is well capable — plus Omaha.”