KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Cole Hamels allowed one unearned run in 5 1/3 innings, Nomar Mazara and Adrian Beltre homered and the Texas Rangers defeated the Kansas City Royals 7-4 on Saturday night.

Hamels, who is 6-1 with a 2.24 ERA in his past nine starts, limited the Royals to five hits, struck out four and walked three. Hamels (11-2) lowered his ERA to 2.87, which is tied for third in the American League.

The Rangers picked up only their fifth victory in 20 games.

Mazara homered in the fourth with Jurickson Profar, who had walked, aboard, which was the first hit off Royals starter Yordano Ventura. Mazara, who tops all American League rookies with 25 games with multiple hits and 141 total bases, doubled to center in the fifth, scoring Delino DeShields.

Beltre, a career .363 hitter at Kauffman Stadium, hit a three-run homer in the Rangers’ four-run seventh off Joakim Soria. Ian Desmond singled in the first run of the inning. Soria has allowed six runs in his past two outings and has a 9.72 ERA in his past nine relief appearances.

Pool play continued Saturday in Junction City at North Park in the Babe Ruth State Baseball Tournament for 13-15 year old players.

Wellington defeated the Junction City Reds 12-2, Parsons downed Chapman 13-1, Liberal shut out Chanute 13-0, and Galena defeated Cottonwood Valley.

The tournament will be be moved to Rathert Field in Junction City on Sunday with pool play continuing at 1 p.m. The tournament wraps up Monday at Rathert Field. The championship game is scheduled at 3 p.m. Monday.

The Babe Ruth State Baseball Tournament for players 13 to 15, opened Friday at North Park in Junction City.

In first round pool play action Liberal defeated Galena 16-1, Chapman was a 12-7 winner over Wellington, and Cottonwood Valley defeated Chanute 16-1, and Parsons defeated Junction City 11-3,

Junction City will play Wellington in the tournament Saturday evening in pool play.

During opening ceremonies Junction City Commissioner Phyllis Fitzgerald welcomed the teams and fans to the community, and threw out the first pitch.

 

The Junction City Brigade won game one of the Cowdin Cup finals Friday in Belton, Missouri.

Junction City defeated the Midwest A’s 14-5.

Game two in the best two-out-of-three series is Saturday at 5 p.m. at Rathert Field in Junction City. If a game three is necessary it would be played at 8 p.m. Saturday at Rathert Field.

The two teams are playing for the championship of the Mid Plains League.

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 on Saturday, August 6 at Bramlage Coliseum.

 

The event will open to the public at 2:30 p.m. and include an intrasquad scrimmage featuring six returning players with starting experience and six newcomers. Fans are asked to enter the arena through the northwest and southwest doors.

 

Following the practice, head coach Bruce Weber and select players 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, August 8 and return Friday, August 19touring 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 Iwundu and 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

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Tyler Naquin hit two of the Indians’ five homers and had a career-high six RBIs, helping the Cleveland Indians rout the AL Central-rival Kansas City Royals 11-4 on Wednesday.

Carlos Carrasco (7-3) only allowed one hit in six shutout innings, a one-out double by Cheslor Cuthbert in the fourth he followed with back-to-back strikeouts. Carrasco walked two in the sixth for his only other baserunners.

Naquin had his first multi-homer game, while Mike Napoli went deep for the second straight day. Jason Kipnis and Carlos Santana also hit home runs.

The first four homers were off Ian Kennedy (6-8), whose bizarre pitching line included eight strikeouts and only one walk. But it was the ninth straight game Kennedy has served up a homer, and he has allowed 26 of them this season, tied with teammate Chris Young for most in the majors.

Kansas City scored all its runs off reliever Austin Adams in the eighth.

The Junction City Brigade will host game one of the Cowdin Cup playoff finals Thursday night at Rathert Field. The opponent is still being determined in playoffs on the eastern side of the tournament bracket. The Brigade are the Western Division champions.

The Brigade have announced that they are offering reduced admission for the game on Thursday. It will be fan appreciation night, and to say thank you for your continous support of Brigade baseball, admission will only be one dollar.