GRANVILLE — There is no Kansas without the letter “K,” and it was that letter that did in No. 24 West Virginia on Friday night.
The Mountaineers struck out a season-high 15 times — marked as a “K” in the scorebook — as Kansas pulled off a 5-3 upset in front of 2,535 fans inside Mon County Ballpark.
Entering the day ranked No. 147 by the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) and with the fewest amount of strikeouts by pitchers among Big 12 teams, the Jayhawks (14-14, 4-3 Big 12) simply didn’t seem to care what odds they faced.
WVU hitters struck out six times against K.U. starter Colin Baumgartner and then fanned nine more times against Jayhawks relief pitchers.
“Their first kid had a real sneaky fastball,” WVU manager Randy Mazey said. “The second guy (Thaniel Trumper) has as good a breaking ball as you’re going to see.”
And when WVU (22-8, 2-2 Big 12) wasn’t striking out, it missed out on opportunities on the bases.
Trailing 4-2 in the fifth inning, WVU had Dayne Leonard on third and Caleb McNeely on first with no outs. McNeely took off on a steal of second, was safe, but he slid past the bag and continued to run to third to avoid a tag.
That put Leonard on the move to try and score, but he was thrown out at home, while McNeely stood at third.
Grant Hussey then struck out and Ellis Garcia popped out, as Kansas got out of the inning unscathed.
After Braden Barry doubled to lead off the seventh, he was caught stealing third trying to advance on a wild pitch that had hit off the umpire and went right back to Kansas catcher Jake English.
“We left some guys on base,” Mazey said. “We made some outs at third base a couple of times and second base. They were some pretty bad outs. It doesn’t matter who you play. Anyone can beat you if you don’t take advantage of opportunities.”
WVU’s 15 strikeouts was its most since fanning 16 times against Kansas State in 2021. The Mountaineers stranded 11 runners and were just 3 for 15 (.200) with runners in scoring position.
Meanwhile, Kansas ran its winning streak to six games on the strength of three home runs.
Kansas scored four of its five runs via the long ball, a trend that is killing WVU pitchers lately. Over the last five games, opposing teams have scored 23 of 29 runs from home runs.
“We didn’t play bad, but we didn’t pitch really well early on,” Mazey said.
WVU starter Ben Hampton (2-1) took his first loss of the season and he gave up two home runs.
He went 3 2/3 innings and allowed seven hits, four runs and walked three.
J.J. Wetherholt was 0 for 4 with a walk, just his third game of the season he went hitless.
The Jayhawks utilized a funky shift against him, leaving the third-base line completely open and shifting the infielders to the right, while the outfielders were shifted hard to the left, leaving the area behind first base wide open.
A well-placed bunt toward third would have been an easy base hit, but Wetherholt swung away each time up.
“We’ve tried that a couple of times this year, but we wouldn’t do it if he wasn’t capable of stealing second base,” Mazey said. “There’s always that temptation there, but you get greedy and want him to hit doubles and home runs with guys on base.
“We talk about it occasionally. He’ll do whatever.”
Hussey finished with three hits and Leonard and McNeely each had two in the middle of the Mountaineers’ lineup. The rest of WVU’s order finished 2 for 22.
Game 2 of the series is at 4 p.m. Saturday, with WVU starting fifth-year senior Blaine Traxel. Game 3 is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday.
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