Kansas pulls off sweep of No. 17 WVU by throwing a second shutout in three games

Dominion Post

17-05-2025

GRANVILLE — A Big 12 baseball title was celebrated by WVU on Saturday inside Kendrick Family Ballpark.
The best team in the conference just may have been in the opposite dugout, though.
Kansas wrapped up second place in the Big 12 with a 7-0 victory over the 17th-ranked Mountaineers, completing a three-game sweep along the way.
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WVU (40-13, 19-9 Big 12) was awarded the league championship back on Friday, following Arizona's State's loss against Oklahoma State, but it's the Jayhawks (42-14, 20-10) who spent the last three days in Morgantown flexing their muscles.
'It was great for them. They came in here and beat us up pretty good,' WVU catcher Logan Sauve said. 'That never feels good. They're obviously a really talented team. They have some good arms and can really swing it.'
Kansas' climb up the Big 12 ranks is a story that begins with going 4-20 in conference play back in 2022 — the season before head coach Dan Fitzgerald was first hired — but the Jayhawks will head into next week's Big 12 tournament in Arlington, Texas as the team to beat.
WVU can't argue against that, not after getting swept for the first time at home since 2021 and getting shut out for the second time in three games.
'They rolled in here and swept the No. 1 team in the league,' WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. 'They're a good team and they didn't have to use their bullpen very much, because their starting pitching did so well.'
On the flip side, WVU will have the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 tournament, but the Mountaineers will enter postseason play having lost eight of their last 11 games.
WVU is also 0-6 in the Big 12 tournament since it was moved to the home of the Texas Rangers in 2022.
'The last two weeks have been pretty tough on us all the way around,' Sauve said. 'At some point, you have to believe it's going to flip again. We have that type of belief in each other.'
WVU's offense was the main suspect to the Mountaineers' sorrows against the Jayhawks, who scored more runs Saturday than the Mountaineers scored the entire series.
Over the three games, WVU finished 5 of 41 (.122) with runners on base and Kansas' pitching staff rarely provided any help, walking just six over 27 innings of play.
'We never got anything going the entire time,' Sabins said. 'I really feel good about our starting pitching. How many times do you play great defense and have good starting pitching and struggle like we did? It's not very normal.
'The offense wasn't very good, but all year we've been averaging nine runs per game, so you feel like that's not going to be something that lasts.'
The Mountaineers won't play until 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the Big 12 quarterfinals against the winner of Cincinnati-Baylor.
WVU swept Cincinnati during the regular season, but did not face Baylor.
WVU's starting pitching was a bright spot against the Jayhawks. On Saturday, Jack Kartsonas went seven innings and allowed one run on five hits. He walked two and struck out eight.
He left the game with WVU trailing 1-0.
'Incredible effort from Jack Kartsonas,' Sabins said. 'He's been a warrior for us. He wasn't his best version in the first two innings, but then found it and got hot.'
Meanwhile, WVU's offense went cold. The Mountaineers never had two runners on base at the same time on Saturday and were limited to just two hits.
Kansas pitcher Kannon Carr earned his fifth win of the season. He went 5 1/3 innings and allowed two hits and no runs. Manning West went the rest of the way to earn his first save of the season.