MANHATTAN, Kan. – For all the success West Virginia’s baseball team enjoyed against nonconference opposition, it is finding wins hard to come by in Big 12 play.
The Mountaineers fell 8-2 at Kansas State on Thursday night in the opener of a three-game series, committing four errors and managing only six hits.
The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for West Virginia (16-11, 2-5), which sits just a half-game out of last place in the league standings, tied with Kansas State (12-15, 2-5).
Freshman right-hander Conner Dotson (0-3) gave up four runs on five hits. He struck out three and issued four of WVU’s seven walks.
“We came out here last night and the wind was blowing out 20 miles-per-hour and we had a lot of fun hitting homers,” coach Randy Mazey said. “I think we showed up today and saw the wind blowing in and it deflated our hitters a little bit. We didn’t adjust to that very well. Between all of the free passes we gave them and our lack of energy on offense, that was one of the worst games we’ve played all season.”
With the bases loaded and two outs, K-State took a 2-0 lead in the third inning when Steve Serratore hit a bloop single to center that score Tyler Wolfe and Carter Yagi.
K-State had another big two-out hit in the fourth inning as Yagi smacked a two-run double to the right-field fence.
That was all the damage Dotson allowed before departing after 107 pitches.
“He made some really good pitches,” Mazey said. “He threw some really good fastballs, he threw some really good breaking balls and he threw some really good changeups, but not enough of each. That comes from being a freshman.
“Against good teams like this, if you pitch like that you should get hit, that’s the way it works. He’s going to continue to grow, get better and eventually all of those pitches are going to come together at the same time.”
West Virginia cut the deficit to 4-1 in the fifth when Ray Guerrini walked and scored on Cam O’Brien’s ground-out to second base.
K-State scored three runs in the seventh inning to put the game out of reach—all three charged to Nick Wernke, who faced five batters ans retired only one.
Colton Kalmus took the no-decision in four innings, giving up one run on three hits. Kalmus pitched into the fifth inning, but was relieved after allowing the first two batters to reach base.
Corey Fischer (3-3) earned the win for K-State with 2 1/3 innings of perfect relief, retiring seven straight batters.