IRVING, Texas – Kansas State’s Shintaro Inoue (player) was joined by West Virginia’s Maxx Yehl (pitcher) and Arizona State’s Dean Toigo (newcomer) as the Big 12 Baseball Players of the Week for the first week of league play.
 
Inoue powered the Wildcats to a series victory in their Big 12 opener while helping extend Kansas State’s winning streak to nine games. The senior infielder from Yamaguchi, Japan, hit .524 on the week, going 11-for-21 with 10 RBI and a team-best 1.314 OPS. He recorded a career-high five hits and six RBI in K-State’s 20-8 series-opening win against Houston, including a three-run homer. The 20 runs marked a program record and the most since 1929. Inoue became the first Wildcat to record a five-hit game since May 2025. His 11 hits for the week led the Big 12 and ranked No. 6 nationally, while his 10 RBI ranked second in the league.
 
Yehl was dominant in an 8-0 road win at Baylor, tossing eight scoreless innings while striking out a career-high 12 batters. The junior lefty allowed just three singles and issued only one walk, while retiring the final 12 batters he faced. His 12 strikeouts marked the most by a Mountaineer on the road since 2019 and capped a performance that improved his season ERA to 0.72, the second-best in the Big 12 and ninth in Division I. His 33 strikeouts through his first three starts are tied for the fourth-most among Big 12 pitchers.
 
Toigo aided Arizona State to a ranked series win over then-No. 17 TCU. The senior outfielder hit .500 (8-for-16) for the week, collecting eight hits, including three home runs, while scoring five runs and driving in five more. Toigo recorded a 5-for-5 performance in the Sun Devils’ 15-8 win over the Horned Frogs, becoming the first Sun Devil to notch five hits in a game since 2024, and finished the week slugging 1.063 with a team-high 17 total bases. His three homers were tied for the most this week in the league (No. 13 nationally), bringing his season total to eight, tied for the fourth-most in the Big 12.