No. 16 West Virginia hosts Kansas for their final Big 12 series of the season as the Mountaineers vie for a Big 12 regular season title.
WVSports.Com previews the series as well as what to expect from each team heading into the weekend.
Last Time Out
West Virginia is coming off a 1-3 week last week, including a loss to Pitt and then a series loss on the road to Kansas State. During those three losses, WVU led in the eighth inning in all three games, and led by at least four runs entering the ninth inning twice.
Kansas went 3-1 last week, beating Missouri during the week before taking two of three from BYU at home over the weekend.
First Pitch Times and Pitching Probables
Game One: Thursday, 6:30 p.m. — Dominic Voegele (KU) vs. Griffin Kirn (WVU)
Game Two: Friday, 6:30 p.m. — Cooper Moore (KU) vs Gavin Van Kempen (WVU)
Game Three: Saturday, 1:00 p.m. — TBA (KU) vs Jack Kartsonas (WVU)
West Virginia is going back to what their rotation was prior to last weekend with Kirn, Van Kempen, and Kartsonas.
Van Kempen is the guy to watch, as two weekends ago he exited his start with apparent discomfort. He did not pitch last weekend, and on the season, he has a 5.95 ERA, the highest ERA on WVU's pitching staff for pitchers who have thrown at least 14.0 innings on the season.
Kartsonas is coming off one of his worst outings of the season, as he pitched 4.0 innings on Sunday, giving up four runs on eight hits, striking out four in the process. The four runs were the most he's given up in an outing this season, while his four strikeouts were his fewest he's totaled in his last six appearances.
Kansas is countering with Voegele and Moore for games one and two. Vogele has a 5.40 ERA on the season, but he has the second-most innings pitched out of all Big 12 pitchers this season with 80.0.
Moore leads the Jayhawks in ERA with a 3.40 ERA, as he's 6-1 on the season. Moore has totaled 65 strikeouts and 14 walks in 69.2 innings pitched this season.
Lineups
Kansas' offense poses a major power threat as they lead the Big 12 and are top ten nationally in home runs with 93. Jackson Hauge has 18 of those home runs, but has only one in the last 14 games.
Among qualified hitters, Brady Ballinger leads the Jayhawks in batting with a .364 average, while he also has 65 runs scored to lead KU as well.
Kansas is fifth in the Big 12 in batting average on the season, second in runs scored, second in slugging percentage, and they have the most walks on the season with 344. Kansas is not that much of a threat on the bases as they have only 24 stolen bases on 27 opportunities this season.
West Virginia's offense has the third-best batting average in the Big 12, bringing a balanced attack to the plate.
The Mountaineers are led by Jace Rinehart at the dish, as he has 50 RBIs on the season to go along with eight home runs. Kyle West also has eight home runs on the season for WVU.
Sam White leads West Virginia in batting average, at .368 on the year, while Rinehart is right behind him at .356.
West and Logan Sauve had good weekends against Kansas State last weekend, as West went 6-for-12 on the weekend with 5 RBIs. Sauve went 6-for-15, compiling as many hits in the three-game stretch than he did the previous 10 games combined.
RPI Ramifications
West Virginia currently sits at No. 23 in the latest RPI rankings, as they are 4-4 in Quad 1 games and 12-3 in Quad 2 games. This will be a Quad 2 series for the Mountaineers.
Kansas sits at No. 34 in the latest RPI rankings, while this is a Quad 1 series for them. They are 1-6 in Quad 1 games this season.
Standings Update
West Virginia just needs one win or an Arizona State loss this weekend to clinch the Big 12 regular season title. Kansas enters tied for third in the Big 12 with TCU.
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