ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) – The Kansas City Chiefs announced the signing of quarterback Nick Foles on Friday, giving them a veteran backup to Alex Smith and alleviating one of the biggest question marks on the roster.

The sides had agreed to terms of a contract earlier this week.

Foles was granted his release from the Rams this past summer after they chose quarterback Jared Goff with the first pick in the NFL draft. Foles had been linked to the Cowboys before deciding to sign with Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who originally drafted him in Philadelphia.

Foles was expected to begin practicing with the Chiefs on Friday.

Kansas City was poised to begin the season with Aaron Murray, Tyler Bray or rookie Kevin Hogan as the No. 2 quarterback. None of them have taken a meaningful snap in the NFL.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Brad Miller hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Thursday.

Miller connected on his 19th homer off Joakim Soria (4-5), who gave up three of the Rays’ overall four hits during his one inning.

Brad Boxberger (1-0) worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth before Alex Colome got his 26th save despite giving up two hits during the ninth. Drew Smyly allowed two runs, five hits, one walk and struck out 10 in seven innings.

Ian Kennedy gave up one hit, walked four and had nine strikeouts in six-plus innings for the Royals. Alex Gordon hit his eighth home.

Tampa Bay won the final two games to split the four-game series. The Rays are 8-25 against Kansas City since the start of the 2012 season.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Fans will get a chance to see the Kansas State men’s basketball team before it departs on a 10-day trip to Italy and Switzerland, as the squad will hold an open practice and scrimmage on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.

 

Doors to the arena will open at 2 p.m. with a scrimmage set for 2:30 p.m.Fans are asked to enter Bramlage Coliseum through the northwest and southwest doors.

 

Following the practice, head coach Bruce Weber will address the crowd. The team will also be available for autographs on the concourse for 60 minutes following the scrimmage. Fans are encouraged to bring their own personal item to be signed. The K-State Super Store will also have items for sale on the concourse. Autographs will be limited to one per person.

 

The Athletics Ticket Office will open at 2 p.m., for fans interested in purchasing season tickets.  A variety of ticket packages are available, including mini-plans. The $250 Big Game mini-plan includes a reserved ticket for all weekend games and the Kansas game, if not scheduled on a weekend. The $50 Pick 5 mini-plan includes five vouchers that can be redeemed for five tickets of your choice, excluding Kansas.

 

K-State will host 18 home games in Bramlage Coliseum, including nine Big 12 matchups.

 

The Wildcats will depart on Monday and return Friday, August 19 touring the Italian cities of Rome, Siena, Florence, Mestre, Venice, Verona and Lake Como as well as Vatican City before concluding the journey in Montreux, Lausanne and Lake Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to the cultural opportunities the tour will provide, the Wildcats will compete against various club, select and national teams, including LCC International University [August 10], BC Silute [August 11], Italian Select [August 13] the Kosovo National Team [August 16] and BBC Lausanne [August 18].

 

The NCAA permits teams to make an international trip once every four years and this will be the first by the men’s basketball team since Weber’s inaugural season of 2012 when it played four games in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Overall, this will be the program’s fifth trip outside the country, which includes excursions to Japan in 1981, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden in 1993 and Vancouver, British Columbia in 2004.

 

The Wildcats will return a veteran roster in 2016-17 with nine returning lettermen, highlighted by All-Big 12 Third Team selection Wesley Iwunduand All-Newcomer honorees Barry Brown and Dean Wade. Overall, the squad returns five of their top six scorers from last season, along with nearly 70 percent of its rebounding, assist, steal and minute totals. Iwundu (11.9 ppg., 4.5 rpg.) is the team’s top returner in scoring, assists and steals, while rising senior D.J. Johnson (9.3 ppg., 5.2 rpg.) is the leader among three returning players (along with Iwundu and Wade) who averaged better than 4 rebounds per contest a season ago. The squad will also be boosted by the return of a healthy Kamau Stokes, who started 20 of the first 21 games before a knee injury sidelined him for the rest of the year, as well as the continued development of redshirt freshmen Isaiah Maurice and Dante Williams, who measure at 6-foot-10 and 7-foot, respectively.

 

–www.k-statesports.com–

————
TOM GILBERT
Associate Director for Athletics Communications | K-State Athletics

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Kansas City Royals designated hitter Kendrys Morales has received a one-game suspension and a fine for his actions following a ninth inning ejection, which included returning to the field, in Tuesday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Joe Garagiola Jr., MLB’s senior vice president of standards and on-field operations, announced the punishment Thursday. The amount of the fine wasn’t disclosed.

Morales was scheduled to serve the suspension Thursday when the Royals play the final game of a four-game series with the Rays, but he appealed the ruling and was in the starting lineup.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – With Kansas State’s nationally-televised season opener at Stanford just under a month away, Wildcat football players reported to the Vanier Family Football Complex on Wednesday morning for the beginning of fall camp.

 

K-State will conduct 20 practices over the next 17 days before getting in its regular in-season routine when classes begin on Monday, August 22. The next week, the Wildcats will prepare for the season opener against the Cardinal on Friday, September 2, at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. The game is set for an 8 p.m. (CT) and will be televised nationally by FS1.

 

Fans can get their first look at the 2016 Wildcats on Saturday, August 13, as K-State hosts its annual Fan Appreciation Day. Details for the event will be announced later this week.

 

K-State will hold its annual Media Day on Saturday beginning with a press conference featuring Hall of Fame head coach Bill Snyder at 4 p.m. To watch Snyder’s press conference on Saturdayand other premium content – including K-State’s September 24 game against Missouri State – fans can subscribe to K-StateHD.TV at www.k-statesports.com

 

Excitement is building for the 2016 K-State Football season, Snyder’s 25th year at the helm of the Wildcats, as a limited number of single-game tickets remain for K-State’s six home games. Only 500 adjoining tickets remain for the Eighth Annual K-State Family Reunion home opener against FAU on September 17, and less than 40 remain for the homecoming matchup against Texas onOctober 22, as K-State looks to extend its sellout streak to 33-straight games.

 

To order tickets, fans can contact the K-State Athletics Ticket office online at www.k-statesports.com/tickets, by phone at 1-800-221-CATS or at the main ticket office inside Bramlage Coliseum.

 

A bye week follows the game at Stanford as Bill Snyder Family Stadium will host the Wildcat Kickoff music festival featuring Zac Brown Band and Train on Saturday, September 10. The festival also includes top acts Phillip Phillips, David Ray and Adley Stump. Tickets can be purchased at www.wildcatkickoff.com.

 

The 2016 football season is the first for the new clear bag policy at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. To provide a safer environment for the public and significantly expedite guest entry into our venues, K-State Athletics is implementing a new bag policy in 2016-17 for all ticketed K-State events that limits the size and type of bags that may be brought into our venues.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Salvador Perez hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning that carried the Kansas City Royals to a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.

Perez’s 16th homer came off Xavier Cedeno (3-3) after a single by Eric Hosmer. It lifted the Royals to their 12th win in their last 13 games against Tampa Bay.

Chris Young (3-8) got the win in relief, and Kelvin Herrera pitched the ninth for his third save.

The Rays scored twice in the fifth off starter Yordano Ventura without hitting the ball to the outfield. Logan Forsythe walked and later scored on Kevin Kiermaier’s bunt single. After Brad Miller’s infield single, Desmond Jennings scored Kiermaier with a groundout to shortstop.

Forsythe had three hits for the Rays, who left 11 on base and went 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – The Kansas City Royals say reliever Luke Hochevar had surgery Tuesday in St. Louis to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome.

The procedure included a scalenectomy, which repairs a muscle in the front of the neck.

Hochevar, a 32-year-old right-hander, is expected to need six months to recover. The Royals hope he will be ready for spring training.

The first overall selection by the Royals in the 2006 draft, Hochevar missed all of 2014 after Tommy John surgery. He appeared in 49 regular-season games last season, then pitched 10 2/3 shutout innings and won two postseason games to help Kansas City win the World Series.

Hochevar last pitched on July 24 against Texas. He reported swelling in his hand last Thursday and was placed on the 15-day disabled list.

He was 2-3 with a 3.86 ERA in 40 appearances this season.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Danny Duffy pitched eight innings of one-hit ball and had a franchise-record 16 strikeouts to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 3-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night.

Duffy flirted with the Royals’ first no-hitter in nearly 25 years before giving up a line-drive double to Desmond Jennings leading off the Tampa Bay eighth.

Jennings came off the disabled list Monday after missing all of July with a strained hamstring.

Kendrys Morales’ 18th home run, a towering shot over the center field wall off Rays starter Chris Archer, got the Royals on the scoreboard in the seventh.

Kelvin Herrera pitched the ninth for his second save.

Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain drove in runs in the eighth for the Royals, who won for only the second time in 10 games.

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – Mitch Moreland homered for the fifth time in his last five starts and Lucas Harrell won in his Texas debut as the Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals 5-3 on Sunday to finish a sweep of the four-game series.

Harrell (3-2) gave up three runs and four hits – including solo home runs to Eric Hosmer and Drew Butera – in six innings. The 31-year-old right-hander was acquired from Atlanta last Wednesday to help the Rangers’ injury-riddled starting rotation.

Moreland’s two-run homer was his 18th this season, the last five coming within 16 at-bats. Nomar Mazara also homered against the Royals, who have allowed an AL-high 141 homers this season.

Sam Dyson earned his 22nd save.