GRANVILLE — With the Big 12 tournament beginning next week, West Virginia’s offense has suddenly gone potent.
The Mountaineers — dead last in the Big 12 in team batting average — racked up 14 hits Friday night in routing Kansas State 15-4 at Mon County Ballpark.
“With our offense, the way we run, you can’t walk us,” WVU head coach Randy Mazey said. “They walked us 10 times and we stole six bases. If we do that, we’re usually going to win.”
West Virginia (32-20, 13-10 Big 12) became the sixth school to reach 13 Big 12 wins this season, which also ties the school record. The Mountaineers will have a chance to surpass it at noon today, when the two schools meet for the final game of the series to conclude the regular season.
“The first month, all we talked about was we needed starting pitching,” Mazey said. “I never thought we’d be in position to set a Mountaineers record for wins in this league. This team has just continued to find a way to grind it out.”
It was just the second time WVU scored in double figures in consecutive games this season and Ben Hampton earned his eighth victory of the season, the most at WVU since Alek Manoah and Nick Snyder each won nine in 2019.
K-State (27-26, 8-15), meanwhile, dropped its third consecutive game and has been outscored 30-8 in the first two games against the Mountaineers.
Hampton began the game with four no-hit innings, before allowing a two-run triple in the fifth.
“Hampton has stepped up for us big time,” Mazey said.
By that time, WVU had already scored 11 runs on just eight hits.
Hampton (8-4) allowed three hits and two runs over 6 1/3 innings, before getting relieved by Ben Abernathy in the seventh. Hampton struck out eight and walked just one.
Braden Barry hit a two-run home run in the third and Tevin Tucker added a two-run triple in the fourth.
“There have been a lot of ups and downs for me this season,” Tucker said. “I’ve tried to stay level-headed. When I hit that ball, I was hoping it would run away from him. When he dove and missed it, I just ran as fast as I could.”
J.J. Wetherholt also continues to play well late in the season. After getting three hits on Thursday, the freshman added two more RBIs and scored three runs a day later.
McGwire Holbrook drove in three runs for a second straight game and Tucker, who entered the game batting just .169, went 2 for 4 and drove in three runs.
Even with the offensive outbursts, the Mountaineers appear destined to remain in sixth place in the Big 12 standings, as Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State all won Friday, too.
The Mountaineers are even with Texas in the conference standings and a game back of Oklahoma State, but both of those schools own the tiebreaker over WVU.
WVU was also within reach of Oklahoma heading into this weekend, but the Sooners took the first two games of their series against No. 7 Texas Tech and now appear to be a trendy pick in next week’s league tournament in Arlington, Texas.
The Big 12 bracket will be released after today’s games. If WVU does finish as the sixth seed, it would play the No. 3 seed in the first round on Wednesday.
TWEET @bigjax3211
