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On a cool day in Lawrence, Kansas, it felt like a mid-summer home run derby. West Virginia and Kansas combined for seven home runs, while the Mountaineers blasted four home runs, including two from freshman Grant Hussey, as West Virginia beat the Jayhawks 10-7.
As West Virginia approaches the final month of the regular season, every game matters that much more for potential postseason implications. West Virginia came into Saturday having scored more than five runs only once in their past nine games, but the offense woke up in a big way.
Hussey and the Mountaineers have struggled as of late. In West Virginia’s last five games, the Mountaineers lost four, while Hussey had recorded only one hit in nine at-bats in those four losses. On Saturday, Hussey was the spark plug for West Virginia, smashing his seventh and eighth home runs of the year.
With the Mountaineers trailing 2-1 in the second, Hussey hit the first pitch he saw over the left-center field fence to tie the game at 2-2. The Mountaineers scored an early run with Victor Scott scoring JJ Wetherholt on an RBI double in the first, but Kansas would quickly answer with two runs of their own, before Hussey tied things up, with his team-leading seventh home run of the year.
McGwire Holbrook would give West Virginia the lead in the third inning, after the Kansas defense gifted Holbrook with a new life. Holbrook fouled a 2-0 pitch, with Kansas’ catcher not being able to find the ball, before it bounced foul. Two pitches later, Holbrook hammered a letter-high fastball to well over the left field fence, giving West Virginia a 3-2 lead.
Mountaineer starter Ben Hampton would relinquish the lead in the third. After giving up two early runs, Hampton settled in during the second, striking out two Jayhawk hitters. In the third, Hampton would leadoff homerun and then worked around a one-out double, keeping the game tied at three.
The back-and-forth home run derby would continue in the fourth inning, this time with Austin Davis getting in on the action. Davis hit a three-run home run to left, scoring Tevin Tucker and Mikey Kluska, giving West Virginia a 6-3 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, Hampton would again give up a leadoff home run, before West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey would turn to his bullpen two batters later.
With a runner on first, Chris Sleeper came in for the Mountaineers, giving up consecutive hits, while Kansas tied things at six apiece.
Hampton would finish his outing, pitching just 3.1 innings, while giving up five runs on seven hits, and striking out five. Sleeper (3-4) would continue to battle, pitching into the seventh inning, while allowing Kansas to add one more run in the fifth, as the Jayhawks took a 7-6 lead.
In the sixth, West Virginia played their own styl
e of baseball, with Kluska walking, before Tucker and Davis had back-to-back hits, scoring Kluska to tie the game. Tucker would then score on a Victor Scott single, before Davis scored on a wild pitch, putting West Virginia in front 9-7.
Sleeper would hand the ball to Chase Smith who went the final 2.2 innings for West Virginia. Smith, allowed only one baserunner who reached on an error, and pitched out of a bases loaded jam, inducing a double play to end the seventh inning.
Hussey would add an insurance run in the ninth, homering to right field, and putting West Virginia in control, before Smith shut the door with the final three outs.
Photo by Wesley Shoemaker
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