Kansas Athletics
Kansas Baseball Series Preview: West Virginia
The Kansas Jayhawks recently defeated the Missouri State Bears in a mid-week showdown and will now take on another Big 12 opponent, the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Mountaineers are 22-7 on the season and an impressive 8-2 at home. The Jayhawks are traveling to Morgantown and should be a challenging opponent for Kansas.
The Jayhawks Need to Play Defense
The Kansas Jayhawks play defense at an elite level, ranked 18th overall in D1 college baseball and 2nd in the Big 12. Kansas has only committed 19 errors on the season compared to another Big 12 team, the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who have made 48. The Jayhawks are also ranked 3rd in the Big 12 at turning double plays with 24. Defense at an elite level is significant when your pitching staff struggles. The Kansas pitching staff is ranked 8th in team earned run average. Opponents are hitting .270 with 45 doubles, 12 triples, and 22 home runs in 882 at-bats against the Jayhawks. These stats could be ballooned much higher if Kansas did not play tremendous defense.
West Virginia is going to hit the baseball. They are ranked 3rd overall in the Big 12 with a .301/.418/.502 slash line and in 1010 at-bats have 304 hits, 67 doubles, 11 triples, and 38 home runs. This team also draws walks with 161 and leads the Big 12 in stolen bases with 77. The Mountaineers have a top 5 hitter in all D1 baseball in J.J. Wetherholt. Wetherholt is hitting .463/.531/.769 with 56 hits, 14 doubles, one triple, and seven home runs. He also has 33 RBIs and 39 runs and leads the team with 26 stolen bases. He is one of many Mountaineers that will hit the baseball. The Jayhawks will have to control what they can, which is defense.
The Jayhawks Will Have to Match the Mountaineer Hitters
The Jayhawks have been red hot from the plate in their previous six games, and so far in the Big 12, they 2nd in batting average (.315), 4th in on-base percentage (.401), and 5th in slugging percentage (.500). Kansas will have to find the gaps looking for extra-base hits. They are 4th in the Big 12 in doubles, 6th with one triple, and 7th with seven home runs. Freshman Kody Shojinaga is scolding hot and continues to hit the baseball. Currently, a slash line of .388/.417/.582 with 26 hits, four doubles, and three home runs. Another freshman who has strung an impressive run together is Jackson Klein. Klein is hitting .340/.507/.400 with 17 hits, three doubles, and ten RBIs.
If West Virginia had a weakness, it would come from its pitching staff. In three games against Big 12 opponents, the Mountaineers have a 5.54 earned run average, giving up 16 runs and 17 walks. Unfortunately, opponents are only hitting .229, and the 17 walks are the least in the Big 12. West Virginia is a good baseball team, and the Kansas hitters will have to go toe-to-toe with them if they want to win another Big 12 series.
The first pitch in game one is scheduled for 5:30 PM CST. Game two will be played on Saturday, April 8th, at 3:00 PM CST, with game three on Sunday, April 9th, at 2:00 PM CST.