MANHATTAN, Kan. – The K-State baseball team fell behind by three runs after the first-inning-and-a-half on Friday while West Virginia’s Ross Vance walked six but surrendered just three hits in a complete game as the Wildcats dropped the second game of the series, 5-3, to the Mountaineers at Tointon Family Stadium.

 

K-State (13-15, 2-6 Big 12) managed to put a runner on base in all but one inning against Vance, but the redshirt junior forced K-State to go 2-for-16 with runners on and strand five.

 

“(Vance) got us last year, doing the same thing to us,” said K-State baseball head coach Brad Hill about the left-hander, who allowed one run in a seven-inning start against the Wildcats on April 27, 2014 in Morgantown. “He got to us early and frustration started to set in. There were not good adjustments by our hitters either. In the last three innings, we got some decent at-bats. We needed those at-bats, though, in the fourth inning – the second time through the order.”

 

The Mountaineers (17-11, 3-5 Big 12), who had 10 hits in the game, jumped on K-State starting pitcher Brandon Courville early, using back-to-back RBI hits with two outs in the first to make it 2-0. In the second, a leadoff double by Caleb Potter was converted into a run when Cam O’Brien hit an RBI single.

Chris Kutz

Assistant Director — Athletics Communication