WVU Baseball Claims Critical Road Series With Kansas; Kelly Homers Again

WVU Baseball won the game and their series with the No. 7 Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday, May 9, moving within two games of the conference crown with four games to play.

Catcher Gavin Kelly clubbed his sixth home run in the past five games, giving the No. 15 Mountaineers (34-12, 18-8 Big 12) two insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Ian Korn, who piggybacked off starting pitcher Chansen Cole, stayed on for the bottom of the inning and retired the Jayhawks in order, sealing a 5-2 win with his second and third strikeouts of the afternoon.

West Virginia claimed a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a two-out home run from center fielder Paul Schoenfeld. Tyson LeBlanc knotted things up in the bottom of the frame with a solo shot of his own, but the Mountaineers manufactured a run in the second to regain the lead.

Matt Graveline led off with a single, taking second on a passed ball, then moved to third on a groundout from Armani Guzman; Brodie Kresser lifted a sacrifice fly just shy of the wall in left to plate Graveline. Jayhawks’ first baseman Josh Dykhoff hit a fly ball to center in the fifth that Schoenfeld misjudged; it caromed off the wall and into no man’s land, giving Dykhoff time to race around the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

Cole allowed another double but escaped the frame, prompting head coach Steve Sabins to turn to Korn for the sixth.

Sean Smith and Graveline singled in the eighth, setting up a base knock from Kresser that put West Virginia back on top; Kelly pummeled a 432-foot moonshot in the ninth to ensure the win.

WVU Baseball will play for the series sweep at 12 p.m. on Sunday, May 10.