As spring is shortly approaching, so is Kansas State’s baseball season. Head coach Pete Hughes, along with returning players Kyan Lodice and James Guyette, previewed the 2026 season during the Wildcats’ media day.
“It’s exciting to start another year here and another year in the growth of our program,” K-State head coach Pete Hughes said. “We’re excited about the group we have.”
Entering his eighth year with the Wildcats, Hughes returns 21 players — 17 of those letterwinners — to his 2026 roster. Last season, Hughes coached his team to a 32-26 record overall, along with 17 conference wins, which set a new school record.
“There have been a lot of ups, a lot of downs, but I believe that this school has jumped a crazy amount from a baseball perspective, not only with the leadership,” senior infielder/outfielder Kyan Lodice said. “… I think that’s something that I’ve taken away from this university and this team: the work ethic, the leadership, and all the players just get along well. It’s unlike any other university.”
As the Wildcats prepare and formulate their game, the focus for the team has been on the pitching rotation and improvements to their offensive action.
“We have a super competitive pitching staff right now,” Hughes said. “We’ve got a lot of returning guys, some veteran guys that have been in the heat of the battle but haven’t really sorted themselves out. … We do have the luxury of seven or eight guys that are pretty talented and battle tested, that are stretched out and that could make up our rotation at some point.”
Junior pitcher James Guyette is one returning player who has developed his skills by playing USA baseball over the summer and translating his experience to his game while wearing the purple and white uniform.
“So just enveloping myself in the program and the culture, using our resources, like our pitching coach or all the other coaches who just know more about the game than I do,” Guyette said. “So, I think definitely using that experience over the summer, just playing with the best and gaining confidence, just to know that we’re good enough to play against the best in the game.”
While K-State’s offense has struggled in past years, the growth and grind players have made during the off-season have benefited the at-bats taken, along with the base runners.
“The key is to get better every year, and we’re a lot deeper than we were offensively last year,” Hughes said. “ … I do think that power component is going to be there again. I want to be a little more efficient offensively on the basis of our run game. It’s an area where we’re adamant in becoming more proficient. I do think that we’ll see a lot of pitches. We’ll control the strike zone, we’ll get on base, we’ll put pressure on people, and then that power component is right there. That’s for sure.”
The Wildcats will open the 2026 season on Friday, Feb. 13, at the MLB Desert Invitational in Scottsdale, Arizona. Over the course of four days, K-State will match up against Iowa, UConn, Penn State and wrap up the series versus Air Force.
Last season, nine opponents of K-State’s 55-game schedule advanced to the NCAA Regional round, including Auburn and West Virginia, making it to the Super Regional along with College World Series qualifier Arizona.
K-State’s schedule will be filled with competitive matchups and curveballs, but it won’t discourage the ‘Cats from playing their game, taking care of business and coming together as a team while doing it.
“Everything about it [the program] is just different,” Lodice said. “And I’m proud to be a Wildcat, and I always will be.”
