No. 24 West Virginia Baseball made the weekend trip to Manhattan, Kansas to play Kansas State and lost game two of the series on Saturday 7-1.
West Virginia (20-7, 1-1 Big 12) struggled to get anything going offensively against German Fajardo and the Kansas State pitching, as Fajardo pitched seven innings and only allowed three hits and struck out six batters.
The game was scoreless after the first inning, with the only base hit occurring when Brendan Jones of Kansas State (19-10, 5-3 Big 12) hit a single to left field on the Wildcats first at-bat.
West Virginia’s Caleb McNeely and Ellis were issued walks to get runners on base, but the Mountaineers couldn’t get anything else from there. Kansas State’s Brady Day hit a solo home run to center field with West Virginia’s Braden Barry losing his glove trying to prevent Kansas State’s first run of the game.
German Fajardo pitched a 1-2-3 inning for the Wildcats, then Roberto Pena hit a solo home run to right field to extend the lead to 2-0 after three innings.
West Virginia would finally get on the board when Landon Wallace hit a triple to right field, scoring an RBI for Dayne Leonard. Tevin Tucker made a highlight reel catch to force a line drive out as the Mountaineers held the Wildcats to without a hit in the fourth inning.
Kansas State extended the lead to 3-1 in the fifth inning when Raphael Pelletier hit a solo home run to right field.
After having three straight ground outs in the sixth inning, the Wildcats would score in the seventh when Raphael Pelletier hit a sacrifice fly to send Cole Johnson to the home plate.
Tyson Neighbors came in relief of German Fajardo in the eighth inning and allowed a hit from West Virginia’s JJ Wetherholt before following that up with three straight outs.
West Virginia would cycle through relief pitchers as they tried to do whatever they could to stop Kansas State from getting on base. Dom Hughes and Nick Goodwin would hit home runs with several other batters getting walked, which led to Cole Johnson scoring a run to extend it to 7-1.
West Virginia brought in pinch hitters in the ninth inning but only mustered a walk from pinch hitter Sam White. Pinch hitter Skylar King sealed the loss with a fly out to center field, giving Kansas State their first top 25 win of the season.
In the loss, Blaine Traxel pitched seven innings, allowing eight hits and striking out two batters.
Game three of the series is set for Sunday at 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m. local time).
