A football reserve west side parking pass for all K-State home football games went to Kyle Wright for $350 in the Junction City – Geary County Catbacker auction over the weekend. Participants submitted their bids via email on a variety of items, with funds raised going to support the Ahearn Scholarship Fund at Kansas State University.

Other items and their winning bids included a $115 Rolling Meadows Gift certificate for $75 to Joel Poole, 2019 Harley Day Ride entry for $25 to Nicole Block, a numbered, framed Big 12 Championship men’s basketball collage for $80 to John and Susan Moyer, a signed, canvas print of basketball seniors to Noel Park for $80 and a numbered, signed football by Coach Chris Klieman in a plexiglass case for $100. The buyer asked to remain anonymous since this is intended as a gift.

Seven four-man teams played in the Brigade Classic at Rolling Meadows Golf Course on Sunday. The event helped raise funds for the Junction City Community Baseball Club that oversees Brigade baseball.

Brigade General Manager Cecil Aska said they’re trying to build up funds to finance scholarships. “What we’d like to start doing. players and staff that work for us, that we’ll start giving back to those people and hopefully be able to give out a couple of scholarships every year.”

( Photos were submitted by the Brigade. )

 

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Veteran wide receiver Jordy Nelson is retiring as a member of the Green Bay Packers.

The 34-year-old Nelson played in Green Bay from 2008-2017, winning a Super Bowl with the Packers, before spending last season with the Oakland Raiders.

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said Sunday that Nelson had informed the team of his decision. A news conference was planned for Tuesday.

Nelson had 550 receptions and 69 touchdown catches in his 10 seasons in Green Bay. He made the Pro Bowl in 2014, missed the 2015 season with a knee injury and was named the 2016 Comeback Player of the Year.

The Packers selected Nelson in the second round (36th overall) of the 2008 draft out of Kansas State. He played in 136 regular-season games, including 88 starts, for Green Bay.
Nelson led the Packers with nine receptions for 140 yards and a touchdown in Green Bay’s 31-25 Super Bowl victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2011.

He played in 15 games for Oakland last year, finishing with 63 receptions for 739 yards and three TDs.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Devin Smeltzer pitched two-hit ball into the seventh inning for his first major league win, and the Minnesota Twins completed a three-game sweep by blanking the Kansas City Royals 3-0 on Sunday.

Jason Castro homered and Eddie Rosario drove in two runs for the Twins, who maintained their three-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central. Luis Arraez had two hits and scored twice.

Recalled from Triple-A Rochester a few hours earlier when reliever Sam Dyson was sidelined by right biceps tendinitis, Smeltzer (1-1) was inserted into the lineup to give All-Star Jake Odorizzi an extra day of rest. He struck out four and walked one on 90 pitches in his third career start.

Brad Keller (7-11) blanked Minnesota’s high-powered offense — which scored 22 runs in the previous two games — through five innings, looking every bit as tough as Smeltzer.

But he ran into trouble after Arraez led off the sixth with a single. Arraez advanced on a wild pitch, went to third on Nelson Cruz’s groundout and came home on Rosario’s sacrifice fly.

Castro connected against Keller with two out in the seventh. It was his 11th of the season and No. 217 for Minnesota, tops in the majors.

Smeltzer started the seventh but was replaced by Tyler Duffey after issuing a leadoff walk to Alex Gordon. Duffy struck out Hunter Dozier and Jorge Soler, and Castro cut down Gordon attempting to steal second.

Rosario tacked on an RBI single in the eighth to give the Twins some cushion.

Sergio Romo pitched a scoreless eighth for Minnesota, and Taylor Rogers finished the two-hitter for his 17th save in 23 chances.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – K-State Football players reported to the Vanier Family Football Complex on Thursday prior to the first full team meeting under new head coach Chris Klieman.

 

Starting Friday, the Wildcats will conduct 20 practices over a 23-day stretch prior to the first day of classes on Monday, August 26, and game week prep for the 11^th Annual K-State Family Reunion on August 31 against Nicholls.

 

K-State returns 40 letterwinners – including 18 starters – as the Wildcats usher in a new era of K-State Football under Klieman. The Wildcats have six players that earned honors in the preseason in punter Devin Anctil (Ray Guy Award watch list), running back James Gilbert (Maxwell Award watch list), center Adam Holtorf (Rimington Trophy watch list), defensive end Wyatt Hubert (Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list), place kicker Blake Lynch (Lou Groza Award watch list) and defensive end Reggie Walker (Preseason All-Big 12).

 

Klieman begins his first season at K-State following an ultra-successful five-year stint as the head coach at North Dakota State in which he won four National Championships and put together an impressive 69-6 (.920) record. Klieman, who served as an assistant coach for the Bison the previous three seasons, has been a part of seven National Championships over the last eight years.

 

Flanking Klieman is an assistant coaching staff that boasts a combined 199 years of experience at both the college and NFL levels, 96 combined postseason appearances and 15 National Championships. Leading the offense is coordinator Courtney Messingham, who enters his 30^th year in coaching, while Scottie Hazelton leads the defense and enters his 24^th year of coaching.

 

– k-statesports.com –

 

RYAN LACKEY
Director of Football and Golf Communications | K-State Athletics

 

 

K-State Athletics will offer tickets for just $19 apiece to the K-State Family Reunion home football opener against Nicholls.

Beginning Thursday when players report for the inaugural preseason camp of the Chris Klieman regime, K-State fans can purchase tickets in bench sections of the south end zone and in the View Level for only $19 as the Wildcats prepare to open the 2019 campaign. Kickoff for the 11th Annual K-State Family Reunion is set for 6 p.m. on August 31st inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

K-State is also offering other ticketing initiatives designed to provide options for fans to enjoy the seven-game home slate that includes Big 12 Conference matchups against Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Iowa State. Starting Thursday a Wildcat 4-Pack will be available for the September 7 game against Bowling Green for just $59 for tickets in the View Level or $99 for bench seating. In addition, K-State is implementing a new feature known as dynamic pricing, with ticket prices possibly being adjusted for each game by demand.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Blue Jays skipper Charlie Montoya has been waiting all season for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to get hot.

Two grand slams in the last 10 days hot enough?

The budding young star hit the latest in the ninth inning Tuesday night, giving him a career-high five RBIs and punctuating Toronto’s 9-1 rout of the Kansas City Royals. The 20-year-old Guerrero is the fourth-youngest American League player ever to drive in five runs in a game.

“He’s getting hot now and I knew that was going to happen,” Montoya said. “He’s seeing the ball better. He’s having good at-bats. He wasn’t doing that and still getting hits because he’s just that good, but now he’s having good at-bats.”

Freddy Galvis drove in a pair of runs with a broken-bat single, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. also had an RBI for the Blue Jays, who clinched their first winning series at Kauffman Stadium since April 2013.

Meanwhile, the Royals stranded 14 while going 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position.

Sean Reid-Foley (1-1), making just his third start of the season, dominated the Royals much as he did in late June. The 23-year-old right-hander allowed four hits and walked four while striking out four, and if not for a pitch count that had already reached 92, he might have gone farther.

“Whatever they need, I don’t care,” Foley said. “I could throw tomorrow.”

No need for more. The Blue Jays’ bullpen — and Guerrero’s big blow — took care of the rest.

“We won 9-2,” Montoyoa said, “but it was a lot closer game.”

The Royals’ Mike Montgomery (1-4) failed to build off a solid start against Cleveland his last time out, getting tagged for two runs in the first and never getting in a groove. The recently acquired left-hander allowed four runs on seven hits and a walk while failing to escape the fifth.

His trouble began with the very first batter, Bo Bichette, who ripped a clean single. Four of the first five Toronto batters wound up reaching base, putting the Royals in a 2-0 hole.

Montgomery dodged more trouble in the third before Galvis, scratched from the series opener with back tightness, cracked his bat while dumping a pitch into left field for a two-run single in the fifth.

“It was a frustrating night all around,” Montgomery said. “I thought I made so many good pitches, no results to show for it. That’s baseball. I felt good.”

The Royals would have loved such timely hitting.

They left the bags loaded in the first when Cheslor Cuthbert flied out, then stranded runners each of the next five frames. And when Hunter Dozier led off the seventh with a single, Jorge Soler popped out and Ryan O’Hearn grounded into a double play — so at least they didn’t strand anyone.

“We just couldn’t get the big hit,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “The game had the feel that, you know, we were going to be kind of out of it the whole game. Battle, battle, battle, but nothing to show for it, then boom, we were going to be right there.”

K-State football fans can get autographs from their favorite Wildcats and the coaching staff on Saturday, August 24th. There will be a “Meet the Cats” autograph session that day from 2-3 p.m. on the concourse of Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Fans are asked to park on the west side of the stadium and enter through Gate B for the event. Those seeking autographs are asked to limit the number of items to one per person and are encouraged to provide their own item to be signed. The K-State Super Store at the Stadium on the west side of Bill Snyder Family Stadium will be open for the event.

The West Stadium Center ticket office will be open during the session for fans wishing to purchase single game tickets. Tickets remain for all seven home games, including the home opener against Nicholls on Saturday, August 31st at 6 p.m.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bo Bichette rapped a clean single in the first at-bat of his big league career, and then was greeted by his parents after the Toronto Blue Jays rolled to a 7-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night.

What did they say?

“I don’t even remember what my mom said,” the mop-haired 21-year-old shortstop said, chuckling with a rookie naiveté. “My dad said, ‘Congratulations Bo. You’re a big leaguer.'”

That would be longtime major leaguer Dante Bichette, by the way.

The Blue Jays’ top prospect didn’t have the biggest impact on the game, though. That was another son of an ex-big leaguer, Cavan Biggio, who hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning and added an RBI single in the ninth. The son of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio finished with three hits.

“Cavan goes up to the plate, you know he’s going to put together a good at-bat,” said Bichette, who played alongside Biggio and another legacy player, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., throughout the minor leagues.

“It was awesome to come in here and look at the lineup and see those names on it,” added spot starter Thomas Pannone, who gave the Blue Jays six competitive innings before departing.

Tim Mayza (1-1) earned the victory with a scoreless inning of relief.

The Royals’ Brad Keller (7-10) let just three balls out of the infield until Teoscar Hernandez’s tying home run in the fifth inning. The right-hander went on to allow three homers in a game for the first time in his career, and four runs total in seven-plus innings.

“I felt in control the whole time. Even minus those three pitches, I felt pretty good. Just mistakes got me,” Keller said. “It’s really frustrating, especially when it costs you the game.”

The Royals didn’t get a hit off Pannone until Cam Gallagher’s one-out double off the top of the wall in left in the third. Whit Merrifield followed with a single to give Kansas City the lead.

Keller, who fanned four of his first five batters, was cruising along until Hernandez came up in the fifth. He sent a mistake splashing into the fountains an estimated 450 feet from home plate.

Biggio then led off the sixth with a single, and Randal Grichuk turned on a 2-1 pitch moments later, sending it over the left-field wall for his 17th homer. It was his second against Kansas City this season.

Keller, who came into the game with the third-stingiest home run rate in the majors, breezed through the seventh and manager Ned Yost left him in to start the eighth. That’s when Biggio followed a deep foul ball with an even deeper fair one for a solo shot that gave the Blue Jays the lead again.

“A tie ballgame, but he still felt strong in that situation and I’m not bringing in a reliever if a guy gets on,” Yost said. “I wanted him to keep the ball in the park, which didn’t happen.”

Toronto tacked on three more runs in the ninth to put the game away.