LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kyle Gray homered and knocked in four runs while extending his hitting streak to 20 games. His West Virginia teammates did plenty of hitting too.
The Mountaineers set a season-high for runs while thumping Kansas 21-3 in Friday night’s opener of a three-game series.
Gray was 4-for-4 by the fifth inning, including an RBI double and his team-leading 10th homer, a three-run shot that put West Virginia ahead 13-2. Darius Hill had two doubles among his four hits, Tyler Doanes went 3-for-3, and Marques Inman launched his sixth homer of the season as the Mountaineers (24-19, 7-9 Big 12) collected 23 hits and won their fourth straight game.
“You can’t pick anything we didn’t do great tonight,” coach Randy Mazey said. “We swung the bats well against a really good arm, we pitched really well and played great defense.”
The offensive outburst was the biggest for WVU since a 22-9 win at Coastal Carolina on Feb. 25, 2017.
The beneficiary of extreme run support, BJ Myers (1-1) threw seven innings and allowed two runs, one earned. He fanned three, walked one and allowed seven hits.
“We needed that from him,” Mazey said. “B.J. kept them at bay and gave our offense a chance to get rolling.”
Kansas (20-25, 3-12) used six pitchers who issued eight walks and hit three batters. Right-hander starter Goddard (4-1) was riddled for eight runs on nine hits over four innings in his first loss of the season.