After beating Nebraska on Tuesday, Kansas State baseball will head to Morgantown, West Virginia, for a Big 12 weekend series starting Friday night.
K-State has seriously struggled this season with both offense and pitching performances. Before Tuesday night in the rematch against Nebraska, the Wildcats had lost nine games in a row. Heading into the weekend, K-State can ride the momentum from a win against an old conference opponent: West Virginia.
If you only pay attention to conference records, then these two teams look pretty even in terms of performance. The Wildcats have the worst winning percentage in the Big 12 conference going 2-10 against conference opponents this season. The Mountaineers are only listed as slightly above them, playing fewer games at this point in the year.
K-State pitching has given up 279 runs on the season while the team has scored 219 off opponents. The total runs allowed is partly due to the series against Texas Tech in which K-State gave up more than 50 runs. The team earned run average is 6.21, again, due to some rough outings by some of the staff.
Sophomore Kasey Ford, who has seen the role of Friday night starter the majority of this season has a 4.03 ERA with four wins and two losses in nine starts. Ford has struck out 41 batters and given up 27 walks over 52.1 innings.
West Virginia pitching has allowed 198 runs on the season while the team has scored 181 times. Sophomore Kade Strowd has thrown the most innings for this Mountaineer team, with 41. Strowd is 3-3 while giving a free pass to first base 19 times and sending batters back to the dugout with the bat still in their hands 39 times.
K-State Sophomore Will Brennan with an impressive .367 batting average leads the Wildcats while slugging .447. Junior Drew Mount has hit a team-high nine home runs in his offensive contribution while also driving in 41 runs.
A majority of West Virginia’s offensive production has come off the bats of Kyle Gray, Marques Inman and Darius Hill. These three have combined for a total of 59 runs batted in. Gray is slugging .609 followed by Inman at .561.Hill and Jimmy Galusky have started every game for West Virginia.
K-State picked up a huge win on Tuesday night against non-conference opponent Nebraska. The win ended a nine-game losing streak for the Wildcats as they continue their season against the Big 12. It will be important to keep that momentum going as they try to climb their way back into the conference standings.
The first pitch between the Wildcats and Mountaineers is scheduled for 5:30 Friday in Morgantown, West Virginia.
