WVU Baseball Gains Ground in Big 12 Behind Yehl’s Complete Game

WVU Baseball entered play on Friday, May 8 four games behind No. 7 Kansas for first place in the Big 12. Facing the Jayhawks in Lawrence, the No. 15 Mountaineers (33-12, 17-8 Big 12) took their first step toward a late season comeback, winning 4-1 behind a complete game from Maxx Yehl.

The redshirt junior left-hander fanned nine batters across 124 pitches, battling Jayhawks’ designated hitter Dariel Osorio for ten pitches in the bottom of the ninth. Yehl ended up conceding a walk, the second he allowed on the night, but forced a fielders’ choice groundout and a strikeout to escape.

Yehl allowed two singles in the second inning but worked a double play to escape the jam. Gavin Kelly gave him a 1-0 lead the following frame with his fifth home run in the past four games, golfing a 394-foot, 30 degree moonshot off the light pole in right-center. Sean Smith tripled to lead off the fourth, then a single from Armani Guzman brought him home. Brodie Kresser singled to put runners at the corners, then baited a throw on a double steal that sent Guzman racing home and gave the Mountaineers a 3-0 lead.

Kansas stung Yehl for one run in the sixth, the product of a leadoff double, but Tyrus Hall retaliated with an opposite field blast in the top of the seventh that re-established a three-run lead that held.

WVU Baseball will attempt to take their series with the Jayhawks — and make up ground in the Big 12 — at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 9.