No. 19 West Virginia Drops Big 12 Home-Opener

Morgantown, WV - The West Virginia Mountaineers (22-8, 2-2) fell to the Kansas Jayhawks (14-14, 4-3) Friday night 5-3.

Jake English put the Jayhawks on the board with a solo home run well over the left field wall in the top of the second. Then, Jackon Cobb followed with a single before Chase Jans delivered a two-out bomb into the visitor's bullpen for the early 3-0 advantage.

The Jayhawks stayed on top of West Virginia starting pitcher Ben Hampton, adding another run in the third when Jansen Reeder hit a leadoff double and Kodey Shojinaga place runners at the corners with a single to left field before a wild pitch scored Reeder as Kansas took a 4-0 lead.

West Virginia cut the deficit in half in the bottom half of the inning after three conseuctive two-out doubles from Dayne Leonard, Caleb McNeely and Grant Hussey put two runs on the board and trailed 4-2 after three innings.

Hampton beaned Jackson Kline to start the fourth inning then gave up a single to Jans but a diving effort from right-fielder Caleb McNeely turned into a double play. Head coach Randy Mazey called out to the bullpen for Maxx Yehl and the freshman closed out the inning and tossed three scoreless innings.

Landon Wallace got the Mountaineers within a run with a leadoff home run in the seventh.

In the top of the ninth, Cole Elvis put the Jayhawks back up two with a one-out solo home run off of David Hagaman.

The Mountaineers brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom half of the frame but could not bring any runners across as Kansas stuns WVU with a 5-3 decision. ]

West Virginia will look to even the series in game two with the first pitch set for 4:00 p.m. EST.

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