OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Victor Scott drew a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth inning, sending West Virginia to an 8-7 win over Kansas on Tuesday in the 2021 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship.
With the win, the eighth-seeded Mountaineers (24-25) extended their season by at least two games and will take on No. 1 seed Texas at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
“On the scale of walk-off excitement, a walk is one of the lowest, but it doesn’t change the fact that this was a really good win for us,” WVU coach Randy Mazey said. “Victor Scott’s at-bat there was just a culmination of all of our at-bats over the course of the whole night. Our hitters stood in there pretty well against Kansas’ best arms. That was a really good night for us offensively.”
Jacob Watters picked up the win in relief against No. 9 seed Kansas, which fell to 30-27. Watters logged 1 2/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
West Virginia overcame an early 5-0 deficit, and tied the game at 5 with a four-run fourth inning that featured RBI singles from Tyler Doanes and Austin Davis, as well as a two-run triple from Matt McCormick.
After taking its first lead in the fifth at 6-5, the Mountaineers fell back behind when KU mustered a pair of runs in the sixth inning.
But Kevin Krophy’s eighth-inning double down the left-field line, combined with a Jayhawks’ error, allowed Braden Barry to score the tying run for WVU in the eighth.
Both teams finished with 14 hits.
McCormick was 2-for-5 with a pair of RBIs, while Maui Ahuna led KU by going 4-for-5 with a home run, four RBIs and three runs.
Alec Burns provided West Virginia’s first run with a solo home run.
Daniel Hegarty suffered the loss for Kansas, while Jonah Ulane issued consecutive base-on-balls to end the contest without recording an out.
Texas (40-13) won two of three matchups with the Mountaineers to end the regular season. After WVU claimed the series opener 5-4, the Longhorns won the next two games by a combined score of 26-5.