ARLINGTON, Texas — The WVU baseball team learned just how large of a difference five days can make.
Five days after outscoring Kansas State 35-9 in a three-game sweep, the sixth-seeded Mountaineers lost to the seventh-seeded Wildcats, 8-5, in a Big 12 Tournament Elimination Round Game on Thursday afternoon at Globe Life Field.
Instead of spending Memorial Day Weekend inside the Texas Rangers’ stadium, the Mountaineers will return to Morgantown and await Monday’s NCAA Tournament announcement.
WVU head coach Randy Mazey had said after Wednesday’s 6-4 first round loss to Oklahoma that KSU couldn’t be taken lightly.
Now, the time will shift its focus toward its next goal, reaching a third NCAA Regional in five seasons (not counting the canceled 2020 season).
“I’m pretty happy when you look back on the season — we’ve had a really great year,” Mazey said.
“Considering, we were picked to finish eighth in the league. For us to do what we did this season says a lot about our kids. We haven’t lost three games in a row this whole season. The character of this team is that you get your backs against the wall and play really good baseball.”
Although the Mountaineers (33-22) gained the sixth seed, they finished just two games behind Big 12 regular season champion TCU and a game behind Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.
On Thursday, WVU (33-22) overcame a 3-0 deficit by scoring three runs on a two out rally in the bottom of the third inning.
Sophomore catcher McGwire Holbrook, sophomore left fielder Braden Barry and redshirt junior third baseman Dayne Leonard hit consecutive singles to tie the game.
Kansas State (28-28) added four more runs over the fifth and sixth innings, and it proved to be too large of a gap for the Mountaineers to overcome.
They rallied in the bottom of the seventh when junior center fielder Victor Scott II hit an RBI double, and freshman freshman second baseman J.J. Wetherholt hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth.
WVU sophomore starting pitcher Ben Hampton (8-5) took the loss for the Mountaineers, allowing four runs on six hits.
“It didn’t seem like my fastball was cutting it today,” Hampton said. “It was a little flatter, so I made an adjustment off that. I was throwing more breaking balls that were a little firmer because they were waiting back on the curveball.”
The Wildcats outhit WVU, 12-6, and none of the Mountaineers had multiple hits in the game. Three costly errors also hurt WVU’s cause.
WVU’s 157 stolen bases are first in the Big 12 and second nationally.
The Wildcats will face the loser of Thursday night’s Texas Tech-Oklahoma game at 8 p.m. Friday.
By MICHAEL SUDHALTER
