No. 16 West Virginia hosts Kansas in the Big 12 Conference Series Finale

Originally posted on West Virginia Mountaineers on SI
By Christopher Hall | Last updated May 15, 2025 1:32 PM ET

Morgantown, WV – No. 16 West Virginia will conclude its regular season schedule with a Big 12 Conference series against Kansas.

Game one is set for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. EST, game two is slated for Friday at 6:30 p.m. EST and the series finale is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. EST.

The Mountaineers (40-10) fell to Kansas State last weekend, the first league series loss since dropping two of three games versus Arizona in the conference opener in March. However, sitting with a 19-6 league record, West Virginia is a win away, or an Arizona State loss, from capturing their first outright Big 12 Conference regular season championship, second overall.

West Virginia has surrendered late inning leads in three of the last four games, twice holding large ninth inning leads. The bullpen has taken the brunt of the criticism, but fielding errors have contributed to the collapses.

Errors are subjective to the scorekeeper, but a hot ground ball, despite a bad bounce, is a cause for concern for a program fighting for its first trip to Omaha.

West Virginia’s 55 errors on the season ranks near the bottom, along with the fielding percentage (.970).

Despite the recent struggles, the pitching staff remains one of the best, ranking first in the Big 12, 17th in the NCAA, with a 4.04 team ERA.

West Virginia is third in the Big 12 with a team batting average of .304.

Junior Sam White his batting a team-best .368 with 39 RBI and senior Race Rinehart leads the team in RBI (50) and is tied with senior Kyle West with a club-best eight home runs.

West Virginia is scheduled to start senior lefty Griffin Kirn (3.49 ERA, 73 K) in game one. The senior was on pace for his sixth win of the season in the opener against Kansas State last week until a sixth-run ninth for the walk off win by the Wildcats went down as a no decision.

Junior Gavin Van Kempen returns to the weekend rotation for game two. The right-hander was moved out of the rotation after allowing 13 earned runs during a four-game stretch, placing his ERA at 10.54. He did, however, allow one run in four innings against Cincinnati during that span.

Jack Kartsonas will take the mound on the series finale. The senior has made all five of his starts the last five weekends, and despite allowing four runs in four innings of work last week, he had a 2.09 ERA during in the five starts.

Kansas is expected to counter with Dominic Voegele in the series opener. The sophomore has allowed nine runs in his last two outings.

Sophomore Cooper Moore is slated for game two. He bounced back last week with a gem, giving up one run in eight innings against BYU, after allowing five earned runs in the loss against Cincinnati the week prior.

The Jayhawks series finale starter will be announced on Saturday.