MANHATTAN, Kan. – Head coach Pete Hughes has agreed to a contract extension through the 2031 season, K-State Director of Athletics Gene Taylor announced Friday. The extension was unanimously approved by the K-State Athletics, Inc., Board of Directors.
"Coach Hughes has established a great culture within our baseball program and consistently put our teams in a position to compete in the postseason," Taylor said. "He and his staff have continued to elevate our program in all facets – talent level, wins, facilities, community involvement and academics – and we are excited for the years ahead under his leadership. In addition, Pete, his wife Debby and their family have made Manhattan their home and will continue to make a tremendous impact on our community.”
Since arriving in 2018, Hughes has piloted K-State to seven consecutive winning seasons and 230 overall victories (82 Big 12 wins), including four straight 30-win seasons. The streak ties the longest stretch of 30-win seasons in school history and the program’s first such run since 1988-91. Under Hughes’ leadership, K-State baseball has posted a .717 home winning percentage over the last six seasons, winning 114 games at Tointon Family Stadium.
Hughes has led K-State to numerous historic highs during his tenure in Manhattan, highlighted most notably by back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths in 2024 and 2025, marking the third time K-State made consecutive appearances in school history.
K-State's 2024 postseason run marked the program’s first berth to the NCAA Tournament since 2013 and included the program's second Super Regional appearance after claiming the Fayetteville Regional championship title.
“My wife Debby and I will look back at our career and will be forever grateful for Gene Taylor, President Meyers, President Linton and the entire community of Manhattan,” said Hughes. “We were given an amazing opportunity to raise a family and build a program for the most deserving fan base in college athletics. It's truly been humbling to be a part of it, but we are certainly not finished with the accomplishments that we've set for this program in 2018.
It's an honor to have the confidence of our leadership in our program moving forward. It'll be a privilege to continue to raise the standard of Kansas State baseball. Again, we’ll do it our way, the K-State way through hard work and integrity.”
Under Hughes, the Wildcats have also emerged as a consistent pipeline to the Major League Baseball Draft, with 20 student-athletes accounting for 21 K-State MLB Draft picks, including 14 players selected in the first 10 rounds. From 2021 to 2026, he has produced six consecutive MLB Draft classes with multiple selections. K-State is also one of only two programs in all of college baseball to have five middle infielders selected in the top 10 rounds over the last four years.
The 2019 and 2024 MLB Draft classes were headlined by the program’s highest all-time draft picks with first rounders and No. 21 overall picks Jordan Wicks (LHP, Chicago Cubs) and Kaelen Culpepper (SS, Minnesota Twins).
At K-State, Hughes has mentored four All-Americans – Culpepper, Dee Kennedy, Tyson Neighbors, and Wicks – as well as 2025 Freshman All-American AJ Evasco. He has also developed 38 All-Big 12 selections and six Big 12 All-Freshman Team selections. His teams have continued to push the program’s standard higher, setting numerous program and individual records during his eight seasons in Manhattan, including a program-high 17 conference wins in 2025 and 14 road victories in 2023.
Hughes’ Wildcats have consistently ranked among the nation’s top lineups, highlighted by top-25 finishes in three or more offensive categories across the last six seasons. The top finishes include ninth in stolen bases in 2024, 11th in home runs in 2021, 12th in total doubles in 2026 and 13th in total walks in 2023.
K-State’s offense has broken the single-season home run mark twice, including a school-record 97 in 2025, as Hughes’ teams have compiled the program’s top five seasons in terms of home run production. On the mound, K-State posted a program-best .257 opponent batting average and set the school record for strikeouts per nine innings at 9.9 in 2021, while also establishing the single-season best with 590 strikeouts in 2024.
The Wildcats continued to rewrite the record book in a variety of areas under Hughes in 2026, including eight home runs against SIUE on March 8 to establish a new single-game mark. K-State scored 20 runs at Houston on March 13, the most ever scored in a conference opener, while finishing with a program-high eight run-rule victories. On April 12, the pitching staff struck out a program-record 23 batters against Oklahoma State.
Individually, Dylan Phillips established the program's career home run record with 44 from 2019-22, while Kennedy set the single-season mark with 20 home runs in 2026. Brendan Jones tied the single-season walks record with 55 in 2024, while Wicks established program-bests for both career strikeouts (230) and single-season strikeouts (118) in 2021.
Beyond the field, Hughes has made a lasting commitment to serving the Manhattan community, with his 19 Ways initiative becoming a staple of K-State baseball. In seven years, K-State baseball’s community service initiative has raised more than $400,000 for College Baseball vs. Cancer, splitting funds evenly between pediatric brain cancer research and the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City. During the 2025-26 academic year, the Wildcats finished No. 1 among all men’s Division I teams in community engagement.