No. 12 West Virginia Falters in the Ninth (Again) and Falls to K-State

Manhattan, KS – After No. 12 West Virginia allowed five runs in the ninth and was walked off by Pitt Tuesday night, the Mountaineers (39-9, 18-5) gave up six runs to the Kansas State Wildcats (29-20, 15-10) in the bottom of the ninth and dropped the series opener Friday night 8-7.

West Virginia broke the scoreless game in the fourth when junior Logan Sauve lined a single to left field, junior Sam White followed with an RBI double off the top of the left-centerfield wall and Jace Rinehart drove the 1-1 pitch well over the centerfield for a two-run home run, his team-leading eight of the season, and a 3-0 lead.

The Mountaineers added a run in the fifth after senior Kyle West doubled to right-centerfield and Sauve hit a low line drive up the middle to bring around West for a 4-0 advantage.

In the bottom of the inning, sophomore Dee Kennedy hit a deep fly ball in the gap in right centerfield and off the glove of junior centerfielder Skylar King for a triple and Evasco was grazed by the 1-1 pitch to place runners at the corners. However, starting pitcher Griffin Kirn sat Madliak on three straight pitches and the Mountaineers got out of the inning converting their third of five double plays of the evening.

Kansas State cut the WVU lead in half in the seventh after Evasco smacked a two-out doubled to left field and Madliak lifted a two-run home run to left field.

West Virginia extended the lead back to four in the eight. Sauve hit a leadoff double for his third hit of the evening and was moved to third on a ground ball from White. Then, Rinehart was intentionally walked before junior Chase Swain put the ball in play for a fielder’s choice RBI and a ground ball deep in the hole on the right side scored another run on an errant throw second baseman Seth Darder for a 6-2 lead.

The Mountaineers added an insurance run in the ninth when senior Brodie Kresser worked a full count walk and was moved to second on a ground ball over to second before Kyle West lined an RBI single in the hole between short and second for the 7-2 advantage.

Griffin Kirn tossed seven innings, recorded three strikeouts for his fifth win of the season.

Reese Bassinger took the mound in the eighth. The senior came away unscathed, but in the ninth, senior Keegan O’Connor hit a leadoff home run to cut it to four. Dardar followed with a single to right field and Kennedy doubled to left centerfield to place runners at second and third. Then, Evasco hit a high chopper to short and beat the throw for an RBI single and the WVU lead was cut to three.

Head coach Steve Sabins called to the bullpen for junior Carson Estridge with Madliak coming to the plate to represent the tying run.

Madliak hit a ground ball to short but an errant throw from Kresser scored a run then a ground ball from junior Sam Flores bounced over to third bounced over the glove Swain and the Wildcats were within on with no outs and two on.

Estridge walked the bases loaded before freshman Ty Smolinksi hit a high chopper to third for the sacrifice RBI to tie the game and O’Conner brought in the winning run with an RBI single to right field as the Mountaineers fall 8-7,

West Virginia and Kansas State will square off in game two Saturday evening at 5:00 p.m. with the action streaming on ESPN+.

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