Box Score CONWAY, S.C. – The West Virginia University baseball team earned an 8-3 win over Kent State on Saturday at the Baseball at the Beach event at Springs Brooks Stadium.
 
Trailing, 2-1, the Mountaineers used a six-run sixth inning to take control in their second consecutive win to begin the 2022 campaign. WVU also scored runs in the first and eighth innings and finished with 13 hits.
 
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Ben Hampton earned the win on the mound, while Collin Romel took the loss for the Golden Flashes, who finished with three runs on six hits.
 
"We have a lot of different guys in a lot of different roles," WVU coach Randy Mazey said. "That's a good thing to have as a coach to have multiple guys to move around. We just have a team full of different roles, and, so far, guys have really accepted it."
 
For the second day in a row, a first-inning home run gave the Mountaineers (2-0) an early lead. On the game's first pitch, senior outfielder Austin Davis smashed a leadoff homer to left to make it 1-0.
 
Kent State (0-2) evened the score at 1 with a solo homer in the bottom of the second. In the third, the Mountaineers stranded a pair of runners at the corners to keep the game leveled, before Hampton struck out the side in the bottom half.
 
The 2021 Freshman All-American fanned seven in his first three innings of work. He went on to strike out a career-high 10 batters in five frames, allowing two runs on three hits.
 
The Golden Flashes loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the fourth and eventually took a 2-1 lead. However, Hampton limited the damage by getting a sacrifice fly to left field and a groundout to end the inning.
 
The De Pere, Wisconsin, native went on to strike out the side in the fifth, which led to WVU retaking the lead in the top of the sixth. After freshman infielder JJ Wetherholt led the inning off with a base hit, junior outfielder Victor Scott II smashed a two-run homer to right to put the Mountaineers back on top.
 
West Virginia didn't stop there. Two batters later, freshman infielder Grant Hussey smacked a two-run homer to deep left – his second in as many days – to make it 5-2, before Davis tallied an RBI single to extend the lead.
 
Davis finished with his second straight three-hit day, going 3-for-5 with two RBI in the win.
 
In all, the Mountaineers sent 12 batters to the plate in the sixth and scored six runs to lead it, 7-2.
 
Fifth-year senior right-hander Chase Smith entered in relief in the bottom of the sixth, striking out a pair of batters and getting out of a bases-loaded jam unharmed. From there, sophomore righty Ben Abernathy worked the seventh and eighth, before junior right-hander Jacob Watters finished the job in the ninth. In all, WVU pitchers combined to strike out 16 Golden Flashes.
 
WVU's final run of the day came in the eighth when junior infielder Tevin Tucker scored on a throw to second base on a stolen-base attempt.
 
Along with Davis, Scott II went 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Hussey, redshirt junior catcher Dayne Leonard and Wetherholt each tallied two hits apiece.
 
With the win, WVU improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2012.
 
Next up, the Mountaineers play their third of four games in Conway on Sunday against No. 16 Central Michigan. First pitch is set for 11 a.m. ET, at Springs Brooks Stadium.
 
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.