Kansas defeated West Virginia in the first two games of the series and were going for the series sweep on East Sunday. However the Mountaineers were able to take one away from the series defeating the Jayhawks 12-3.
West Virginia used a five run first inning to take control of the game early and did not give up the lead after getting it.
Landon Wallace led the way offensively for West Virginia, hitting two home runs and driving in three total runs. Six Mountaineers recorded multi-hit games, including Braden Barry and Caleb McNeely who both hit two doubles.
Freshman pitcher Robby Porco put on an excellent performance on the mound for the home fans, going six innings and allowing just one earned run while striking out 12 Jayhawk hitters in his first Big 12 start.
Carson Estridge came in for relief of Porco, and finished off the win for WVU, going three innings, giving up just one run and four hits while striking out two.
Kansas got on the board first, after two WVU fielding errors gave them runners on the corners with nobody out but Porco was able to limit the damage to just one run off of a Cole Elvis RBI single.
The Mountaineers loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the first on a Wetherholt single and two hit by pitches. Caleb McNeely and Braden Barry walked back to back to score two runs, Grant Hussey singled to right field to drive in one more, Logan Sauve was the third Mountaineer to be hit by a pitch in the inning to drive in another and Tevin Tucker hit into a fielder’s choice to drive in the fifth WVU run of the inning.
Kansas got one back in the third inning on a two out Cole Elvis solo home run, his third of the series, to cut the WVU lead to 5-2.
West Virginia added two more runs in the fourth inning, one off of the first of Landon Wallace’s two home runs in the game, and the second came after Caleb McNeely reached on an error and Braden Barry hit a double to drive him home.
WVU added a run in both the sixth and seventh innings, on solo home runs by Landon Wallace and Grant Hussey to take a 9-2 lead after seven innings.
Kansas once again got a run back on a solo run in the top of the eighth, this time by Janson Reeder to have the Jayhawks down 9-3.
The Mountaineers would kill any hope of a late comeback in the bottom of the ninth, using three hits to score three runs. Tevin Tucker walked to lead-off the inning, Wetherholt doubled down the line and Wallace hit into an RBI groundout to score one. McNeely and Barry hit back to back two out doubles to score two more runs in the inning and give WVU a 12-3 lead going into the ninth.
Kansas got two runners on in the top of the ninth, but no more damage was done as two consecutive flyouts ended the inning and gave the Mountaineers a much needed win.
West Virginia will head to University Park, PA next for a match-up with Penn State on Tuesday, April 11th at 6 p.m.
Photo from @WVUBaseball Twitter
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