MANHATTAN, Kan. -- The Omaha baseball team began its week on the road Tuesday night, falling 10-1 to Kansas State at Tointon Family Stadium. In splitting the season series with the Wildcats, the Mavericks are now 2-18 on the season, while K-State improves to 15-6.

Caleb Littlejim (1-0) picked up the win, throwing 3.0 innings in his start while allowing one run on three hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Senior right-hander Austin Groth (0-1) took the loss, surrendering three runs on five hits and a walk over 1.2 innings.

Junior right-hander James Smith had a standout relief effort for the Mavericks, throwing 4.0 innings of shutout ball with four hits and six strikeouts to one walk.

Omaha was limited to four hits for the night, with one apiece from senior Sam Palensky, junior Cole Patterson, sophomore Parker Smejkal and freshman Cole Thibodeau.

K-State finished with 14 hits as a team, led by Cameron Thompson (3-for-5, one run, four RBI) and Hanz Harker (3-for-4, two runs, one RBI).

The Wildcats tallied in each of the first four innings, starting with an RBI single through the left side by Jake Wodtke to drive in Thompson in the first frame. Thompson then came through with a two-run triple to left in the second to score Harker and Tristan Peterson for an early 3-0 lead.

The Mavericks promptly fired back in the top of the third, as Patterson led off with a double down the right field line. After advancing on a groundout by junior Adam Caniglia, Patterson came in on Thibodeau's RBI single to left center that made it 3-1.

K-State, however, used four hits and an error to put up six runs in the third, going up 9-1. The Wildcats added their last tally in the fourth with one final run that made it 10-1, which held for the remaining five innings.

Omaha returns to league play this Friday, March 24, visiting Fort Wayne. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. CT in Fort Wayne, Ind., and a link to live stats will be available on OMavs.com.