MANHATTAN, Kan. (KStateSports.com) – Six K-State baseball players were recognized on the All-Big 12 Conference Teams Tuesday afternoon, as the league office announced the 2025 All-Big 12 Baseball Awards.
Junior Maximus Martin and graduate Keegan O’Connor earned Second Team honors, while AJ Evasco was selected to the All-Freshman Team. Additionally, Seth Dardar, Jacob Frost and James Guyette received honorable mention recognition.
Under Hughes, K-State has now collected 42 All-Big 12 honors. The 2025 All-Big 12 Baseball Teams were selected by a vote of the league’s 14 head coaches.
In his first season, Martin paces the Wildcats’ offense with a .337 average that includes a team-leading 18 doubles with 14 home runs – second-most on the team. The junior from Edgewater Park, N.J., has earned both Big 12 Player and Newcomer of the Week honors this season and was named to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List, as well as the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List. On March 8, he became the first player since 2018 to drive in eight RBI in a single game.
O’Connor, voted as an outfielder, takes home his second Big 12 honor as he was named the league’s Newcomer of the Week earlier this month. The Andover, Massachusetts product has put together a slash line of .324/.383/.665 to go with a team-leading 56 RBI, which ranks seventh in the league. O’Connor is tied for the single-season home run record, while he became the fifth player in school history to hit three in a single game. His 16 home runs and .665 slugging percentage lead the team, while ranking fourth in the league in both categories, respectively.
AJ Evasco becomes the sixth Wildcat to be named to the All-Freshman Team under Hughes. The true freshman owns the team’s fourth-highest batting average at .306 with 12 doubles, a triple and nine home runs. He is one homer shy of tying the freshmen home run record and two RBI away from matching the freshmen RBI mark. On March 16, he was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week after leading the Cats to a series sweep over Utah.
In his first season with the Wildcats, Dardar has made an impressive impact, earning All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors. A product of Mandeville, Louisiana, his .327 batting average is the second highest on the team matched with a .649 slugging percentage, also second best. Dardar has launched 12 home runs, that includes a grand slam against West Virginia, while he is one of just five players on the team to hit two home runs in a single game.
Frost collected his first All-Big 12 accolade, as the lefty has struck out 69 batters this season and limited opponents to a .228 batting average – fifth-best in league. With a 1-3 record, the St. Louis, Missouri product is one of two pitchers to strikeout out 10-plus batters in a single game this season after fanning a career-high 10 at KU. He has struck out conference-leading 22 batters looking in Big 12 games. In 2024, Frost led K-State to its ninth no-hitter in school history.
Guyette, a native of Newbury Park, California, boasts a 3.98 ERA and a 4-3 record on the mound, along with a team-leading four saves. In eight of his 22 relief appearances, the right-hander has thrown two or more innings and recorded three or more strikeouts in seven outings. In Big 12 play, he holds opponents to a .179 batting average – the second-best mark in the conference – while his 2.84 ERA ranks sixth.
K-State (31-23, 17-13 Big 12) enters the 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship as the No. 6 seed and will face 11th-seeded Houston (29-24, 12-17 Big 12) on Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
