Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 24 West Virginia baseball team fell in its Big 12 home opener to Kansas, 5-3, Friday night at Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark. The Mountaineers fall to 22-8 on the season and 2-2 in the Big 12 while the Jayhawks won their sixth straight to improve to 14-14 and 4-3 in conference play.
 
"We left some guys on base and made some outs on the basepaths," said head coach Randy Mazey. "It doesn't matter who you play, anybody can beat you if you don't take advantage of opportunities. We are an aggressive team and sometimes you must live with the consequences."
 
The 3-4-5 hitters, graduate student Dayne Leonard, redshirt-senior Caleb McNeely, and sophomore Grant Hussey, combined for seven hits while junior Landon Wallace hit his third home run of the season.
 
On the mound, starter Ben Hampton allowed four runs in 3.2 innings before freshman Maxx Yehl came in and shut the Jayhawks down by throwing 3.1 hitless innings with three strikeouts.
 
The Jayhawks took a 3-0 lead in the second with a pair of home runs before tacking on a fourth run on a wild pitch in the third.
 
The Mountaineers responded with two runs in the home half of the third as Leonard, McNeely, and Hussey hit three consecutive two-out doubles.
 
The score remained the same until the sixth when Wallace smacked a home run on the first pitch of the inning.
 
West Virginia put runners in scoring position in both the seventh and eighth innings but could not come up with the clutch two-out hit.
 
Kansas hit a solo home run in the ninth to extend its lead. In the home half, a two-out walk to McNeely got the tying run to the plate, but Stone Hewlett struck out Hussey to secure the Jayhawk victory.
 
The Mountaineers will look to bounce back tomorrow afternoon with first pitch set for 4 p.m.
 
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