Baseball Drops Series Opener at K-State
April 02, 2015 10:18 PM | General
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MANHATTAN, Kan. – The West Virginia University baseball team fell 8-2 at Kansas State on Thursday night in the series opener at Tointon Family Stadium.
The loss snaps a seven-game winning streak for West Virginia (16-11, 2-5 Big 12), who finished with two runs on six hits with four errors. Kansas State (12-15, 2-5 Big 12) scored eight runs on eight hits and did not commit and error.
"We came out here last night and the wind was blowing out 20 miles per hour and we had a lot of fun hitting homers," coach Randy Mazey said. "I think we showed up today and saw the wind blowing in and it deflated our hitters a little bit. We didn't adjust to that very well. Between all of the free passes we gave them and our lack of energy on offense, that was one of the worst games we've played all season."
Freshman right-hander Conner Dotson (0-3) was issued his third loss of the season in six innings for West Virginia. Dotson gave up four runs on five hits with three strikeouts and four walks.
"He made some really good pitches. He threw some really good fastballs, he threw some really good breaking balls and he threw some really good changeups, but not enough of each," Mazey said. "That comes from being a freshman. Against good teams like this, if you pitch like that you should get hit, that's the way it works. He's going to continue to grow, get better and eventually all of those pitches are going to come together at the same time."
With the bases loaded and two outs, K-State took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning when Steve Serratore hit a bloop single to center field to score Tyler Wolfe and Carter Yagi.
K-State had another big two-out hit in the bottom of the fourth inning to extend the lead to 4-0 as Yagi smacked a two-run double to the right field fence, scoring Alex Bee and Wolfe.
West Virginia cut the deficit to 4-1 in the top of the fifth inning when senior first baseman Cam O’Brien grounded out to second base, plating sophomore catcher Ray Guerrini, who reached on a leadoff walk.
K-State scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to put the game out of reach at 7-1 in favor of the Wildcats. Max Brown scored on a fielder’s choice to shortstop by Bee, Sam Chadick then stole third base and scoring on a throwing error by Guerrini, while Danny Krause scored on a single to center field by Wolfe.
Junior center fielder KC Huth scored for West Virginia in the top of the eighth to bring the game to 7-2 on a ground out to shortstop by senior third baseman Justin Fox.
K-State got the run right back in the bottom of the eighth when Jake Wodtke scored on a single to left field by Taylor Anderson.
Colton Kalmus (0-2) took the no-decision in four innings and gave up one run on three hits with three strikeouts and two walks. Kalmus pitched into the fifth inning, but was relieved after allowing the first two batters to reach base.
Corey Fischer (3-3) earned the win for K-State with 2.1 innings of perfect relief, retiring seven straight batters.
Yagi and Serratore each had two RBIs and Wolfe scored two runs to pace the Wildcat offense.
West Virginia and Kansas State return to action on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. The Mountaineers will send junior left-hander Ross Vance (3-2) to the mound.
The game will be broadcast on FOX Sports Midwest, while it also can be heard on the affiliates of the Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG College with Wyatt Thompson and Ernie Galusky on the call.
Additionally, fans can listen to the broadcast via the WVU Gameday App on their mobile device, as well as the TuneIn Radio App. WVUsports.com also will carry free live audio via the LeanStream Player at WVUsports.com/audio.
A link to live stats is available on WVUsports.com.
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