The West Virginia University baseball team defeated No. 7 Kansas, 4-1, on May 9 behind a complete game by redshirt junior Maxx Yehl. With this win, the Mountaineers improved their record to 33-12 overall and 17-8 in the Big 12 Conference, while the Jayhawks fell to 37-13 and 20-5 in conference play.
The matchup was considered one of the top series in college baseball nationally. Yehl struck out nine batters and allowed just one run on six hits during his performance. This marks the second complete game for a Mountaineer pitcher this season.
Sophomore Gavin Kelly contributed offensively with his fifth home run in four games, a day after receiving an invitation to the USA Baseball National Collegiate Team training camp. Junior Tyrus Hall added his fourth home run of the season, while junior Armani Guzman collected three hits along with an RBI and a run scored.
West Virginia took an early lead when Kelly hit a solo home run in the third inning. The team added two more runs in the fourth inning through contributions from graduate student Sean Smith and Guzman, including a successful double steal executed by Smith and graduate student Brodie Kresser.
Kansas managed to score once with a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning before Hall responded for West Virginia with another home run in the seventh. Yehl finished strong by retiring Kansas hitters over the final innings, recording his ninth strikeout on his last pitch of the night to secure victory for West Virginia.
This victory marked West Virginia’s first win over a top-10 team since defeating Texas Tech in Lubbock in 2022. The Mountaineers will aim for their first top-10 series win since taking two out of three games against TCU that same year when they face Kansas again on Saturday.