KANSAS ATHLETIC COMMIUNICATIONS
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kansas baseball secured a series win and its 41st overall win of the season with an 8-5 victory against No. 14 West Virginia on Friday evening at Wagener Field at Kendrick Family Ballpark. The 41 wins are the third most in a season in school history in only the third season under head coach Dan Fitzgerald.
Kansas improved its record to 41-14 this season and 19-10 in Big 12 play. The 41 wins trail only 43 wins in 2006 and 45 wins in 1993 for the most in school history. The Jayhawks have now won seven conference series for the first time in program history. Kansas has also won seven consecutive games on the road. The 19 conference wins and 19 road wins are both already school records.
Cooper Moore pitched eight strong innings to match his career high for innings pitched and held West Virginia to three runs for his seventh win of the season and sixth quality start of the year. Moore has gone eight innings in back-to-back starts for the first time in his career. Offensively, Brady Ballinger hit his 15th home run of the season on Friday night.
"I'm super proud of how far we've come in year three," Fitzgerald said. "I think it's such a great picture of how hard our staff has worked and the incredible job they've done in recruiting and development. Then ultimately, it's the effort and talent of the players and just their buy in to execute and do it at a really, really high level. I'm proud of where we're at. It's been a complete effort from the administration down and I'm excited that we get to continue to play more baseball."
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Kansas scored a first inning run for the second straight day. After a leadoff double by Ballinger, Dariel Osoria drove him in with a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.
• West Virginia (40-12, 19-8 Big 12) evened up the game in the bottom of the first as Gavin Kelly came in to score on a double play to bring the score to 1-1.
• The Mountaineers took the lead in the bottom of the third inning on a solo home run by Kyle West. The solo blast gave West Virginia a 2-1 advantage at the end of three innings.
• The Jayhawks put up a crooked number in each of the next two innings with five runs in the fourth and two runs in the fifth.
• Michael Brooks drove in the first run of the fourth inning with an RBI double. Derek Cerda would come in and score on a double play for the second run of the inning. Two batters later, Ballinger came up with two outs and two runners on and hit an opposite field three-run homer to flip the lead to 6-2 in the Jayhawks favor.
• In the fifth, Kansas added two more runs with the first coming on a hustle play by Brady Counsell to score from second base on a wild pitch. Chase Diggins brought home the other run with a sacrifice fly. That gave Kansas a 8-2 lead.
• West Virginia was able to get one run in the eighth inning on an RBI single by Ben Lumsden to make it an 8-3 game.
• The Mountaineers added two more runs in the ninth inning on a home run by Ellis Garcia to wrap up the scoring at 8-5.
PITCHERS OF RECORD
Win: Cooper Moore (7-1)
Final line: 8.0 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 8 SO
Loss: Ben McDougal (1-1)
Final line: 2.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 2 SO
Kansas and West Virginia will play the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on ESPN+.