NEW YORK – Athletics Director Gene Taylor announced Monday that K-State Athletics has entered into a multi-year partnership with Anthony Travel as the Official Team Travel Provider for the Wildcats.

 

Anthony Travel is a division of On Location Experiences, a premium experiential hospitality business.

 

This partnership includes on-site travel management with an account manager dedicated exclusively to K-State Athletics’ individual, team and group travel. The on-site account manager will provide travel management services including commercial air, charter air, hotel accommodations, ground transportation and other services as requested.

“We are pleased to partner with Anthony Travel, the national leader in collegiate athletic travel, to serve as our onsite travel partner,” said Taylor. “We look forward to combining their high standard of onsite servicing with their savings programs in all areas of travel as we look to better serve our team and staff travel needs.”

Anthony Travel serves as the year-round travel partner for 84 athletic departments nationwide. In addition to K-State Athletics, Anthony Travel is the official travel provider for every university in the Big 12 Conference.

– k-statesports.com –

 

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

 

 

The Junction City Blues opened play in the Single A American Legion Zone Tournament on Sunday in Newton with a 7-3 victory over the Hutchinson Hawks.

The Blues are 23-11 on the season. The tournament runs through Tuesday.

The Junction City Brigade ( 24-4 ) will enter the Cowdin Cup postseason tournament for the Mid Plains League as the top seed. The Brigade clinched first place in the regular season race over the weekend.

Junction City defeated the Kansas City Knights 5-0 Sunday evening at Rathert Field, but had already clinched first place in the standings before that ballgame.  Junction City will play the Knights Monday evening in Kansas City to wrap up regular season play.

The Brigade will be represented in the conference all-star game Tuesday night in Baldwin City. Head Coach Derek Francis will coach the West team and seven Brigade players will be on that West team.

The Brigade have earned a bye in the quarterfinal round of the Cowdin Cup playoffs. They will not play until the semifinal round next week. When those matchups are known we’ll pass that information along here on JCPost.com.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Tigers heard Kansas City was making a late pitching change about an hour before the first pitch, and what could have caused a bit of anxiety for a bunch of hitters turned out to be a just fine.

Jeimer Candelario hit a bases-clearing double and Gordon Beckham added a two-run homer during a seven-run third inning, and Detroit pounded Brian Flynn and the Royals 12-8 on Sunday.

Harold Castro had a pair of hits during the marathon fame, when the Tigers trotted 11 batters to the plate against Flynn, the fill-in starter. The first six reached base safely, and Brandon Dixon and Niko Goodrum also drove in runs before reliever Jorge Lopez finally ended the inning.

“Our mindset is it’s the same,” said Castro, who had his first career four-hit game. “We’re ready for every pitching. You have to be ready for everything.”

Flynn (2-1), who got the start when Homer Bailey was traded to Oakland before the first pitch, was yanked six batters into the third without recording an out. He allowed seven runs on eight hits.

Jordan Zimmermann wasn’t much better for Detroit. He allowed seven runs on eight hits before he was pulled after facing four batters in the fifth inning. He still hasn’t won since last Sept. 5.

Nick Ramirez (4-3) earned the win for Detroit after allowing one run over three innings.

“These guys come out and put up runs like that, you have to get outs,” said Zimmermann, who blamed the spin on his go-to slider for most of the damage. “You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to get outs. It’s embarrassing.”

The Tigers jumped ahead on Christian Stewart’s RBI single in the first, but it was their big third inning that cracked the game open. Castro and Stewart joined Nick Castellanos on base before Dixon was hit by a pitch to plate a run. Candelario followed with his three-run double.

Goodrum also drove in a run before Beckham’s two-out homer gave the Tigers an 8-3 lead.

The seven-run frame was the Tigers’ highest-scoring inning of the season by a full two runs, and the six hits matched a season-high for an inning set July 4 against the White Sox.

The teams swapped runs in the fourth, and Kansas City plated three in the fifth and another in the sixth to claw within 10-8. But the Royals left a pair aboard to end the inning, and the Tigers answered with two more in the seventh to cap their highest-scoring game this season.

Jorge Soler homered and had three RBIs for the Royals, and the teams combined for 29 hits while stranding 12 runners on base in an offensive slugfest on a hot, sunny day.

“We didn’t pitch real well today,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “There are days when the offense has to cover the pitchers and the pitching has to cover the offense, and we didn’t cover it today.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Royals traded Homer Bailey to the Oakland Athletics for minor league infielder Kevin Merrell on Sunday after scratching the veteran right-hander about 45 minutes before his scheduled start of their series finale against Detroit.

The 33-year-old Bailey has rebounded this season with the Royals after signing a minor league deal in February. He is 7-6 with a 4.80 ERA, but he’s been especially good over his past seven starts, giving the A’s some additional help as they seek a playoff run in the second half.

The A’s began the day six back in the AL West and just ahead of Cleveland for a wild-card spot.

“We’re trying to get incrementally better wherever we can,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said “Before he got hurt obviously was an electric arm and it seems like he’s coming back to form at this point. I think it makes our rotation better and that’s the objective.”

Bailey joins a rotation that has been battered by numerous injuries and a suspension to nine-game winner Frankie Montas.

Montas had a 2.70 ERA in 13 starts but was suspended 80 games by Major League Baseball after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. Montas is eligible to return for the final week of the regular season but not the postseason.

Sean Manaea and Jharel Cotton, both on the mend from offseason surgeries, have struggled in rehab starts, pushing back their timetable to return. Top prospect Jesus Luzardo has also been slowed by a Grade 2 strain in his left lat.

“Our starting depth has taken a hit obviously,” A’s general manager David Forst said. “I had let Kansas City know a fee days ago that Homer might be someone we were interested in. It kind of came together quickly actually this morning.”

The rebuilding Royals signed Bailey with the intention of flipping him ahead of the July 31 trade deadline, and he is almost certainly the start of several transactions.

Royals general manager Dayton Moore has made it known that only a select few players, such as infielders Whit Merrifield and Adalberto Mondesi, are unavailable as contenders begin to come calling.

“You’re looking for bounce-back guys,” Royals manager Ned Yost said during spring training. “You’re looking for the next (Joe) Blanton, the next (Ryan) Madson, you know those guys? The J.D. Martinezes that they gave up on them and then boom, look where he is.”

Bailey, who is making just $550,000 this season, dealt with a rash of injuries from 2015-17 and was just 1-14 with a 6.09 ERA a year ago to wrap up his tenure with the Cincinnati Reds.

The former first-round pick was traded to the Dodgers as part of a seven-player deal that included Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp in December, which means Los Angeles was paying the majority of the $23 million that remained on the $105 million, six-year contract he signed with the Reds in 2014.

Bailey struggled through the first six weeks of the season, but he’s 3-1 with a 3.35 ERA and 37 strikeouts over his past eight starts. He also has shown that the health issues that plagued him for a long stretch in Cincinnati are firmly behind him — he was due to make his 19th start on Sunday.

Melvin said Bailey will make his A’s debut Wednesday afternoon in a home game against Seattle.

Left-hander Brian Flynn was given the assignment against Detroit in his place.

The 23-year-old Merrell was the 33rd overall pick out of South Florida by the A’s in the 2017 first-year player draft. The speedy, defensive-minded infielder shot through three levels of the minors last season, and was hitting .246 with two homers and 34 RBIs in 82 games at Double-A Midland.

The left-handed hitter will not join the Royals’ 40-man roster, instead going to their own affiliate at Northwest Arkansas. That leaves Kansas City with 39 players on their big league roster.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Martin Maldonado and Jorge Soler hit late homers and Whit Merrifield scored on a wild pitch as the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 Friday night.

Bubba Starling was hitless in his long-awaited major league debut for Kansas City, and the Royals lost starter Danny Duffy to a bruised pitching hand.

Maldonado hit a solo homer that snapped a 5-5 tie in the seventh inning. Merrifield hit a double, stole third and scored on a wild pitch in the same inning. Soler added an insurance run, opening the eighth inning with his 24th homer of the season.

Starling, a three-sport star from nearby Gardner-Edgerton (Kan.) High School who was taken by the Royals in the first round of the 2011 draft, ended his 7 ½-year pilgrimage through the minors. He was greeted by a standing ovation from the crowd of 25,059. He walked in his first at-bat in the second inning and scored on a throwing error. He struck out and grounded out twice.

Playing center field, Starling tried for a diving catch of a sinking liner off the bat of Victor Reyes in the sixth inning, but it went off his glove for a run-scoring double.

Reyes had three hits and scored twice for the Tigers.

The Junction City Brigade ( 23-4 overall and 20-4  in the conference )  have clinched at least a share of first place in the regular season standings in the Mid Plains League.

The Brigade got six solid innings on the mound from Jack Christian enroute to an 11-1 eight inning win over the Baldwin City Blues at Rathert Field Friday night. The game was called after eight innings due to a 10-run rule.

Junction City moved two games in front of the Midwest A’s in the Mid Plains league standings after the A’s lost to the Topeka Golden Giants 8-5 Friday night.  Each team has two games remaining in the regular season before the postseason playoffs begin. Junction City defeated the Midwest A’s three out of the four times they have met this year.

The attendance at Rathert Field Friday night may have been the best of the year. Brigade General Manager Cecil Aska estimated more than 600 people attended the ballgame. Due to the large attendance the Brigade ran out of beverages such as beer and soda.

Junction CIty will host the Kansas City Knights Sunday evening at 7 p.m.

The Junction City Brigade defeated the Baldwin City Blues 12-4 Thursday night in Baldwin City. The win left the Brigade with a record of 22-4.

The Brigade are now in first place in the Mid Plains League standings, one game in front of the Midwest A’s. Junction City is 19-4 in conference play while the A’s are 18-5.

Junction City will host Baldwin City Friday night at Rathert Field at 7 p.m.

The Maui Jim Maui Invitational has revealed the 2019 tournament bracket for next November’s tournament in Hawaii at the Lahaina Civic Center.

First round matchups on November 25th will include Kansas vs. Chaminade, BYU against UCLA, Georgia meeting Dayton and Virginia Tech vs. Michigan State. The tournament will continue on November 26th and 27th.