Just a few days ago, West Virginia pitcher Maxx Yehl was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Year after leading the conference with the lowest ERA. Thursday night in Surprise, Arizona, head coach Steve Sabins elected to start Yehl in the ninth-ranked nationally Mountaineers’ first Big 12 Tournament game in the quarterfinals as the No. 2 seed against No. 11-seeded Kansas State. WVU received a bye for the first two rounds.
Yehl showcased why he received the conference’s highest accolade and pitched six scoreless innings to allow the offense to tally a couple of runs, beating Kansas State 4-2 in the quarterfinals. WVU now faces the winner of 3-seeded Arizona State or 6-seeded Cincinnati at 11 p.m. EST on May 22, streaming on ESPN+. Kansas State had won its first two games of the tournament, but couldn’t keep the magic going. The Mountaineers are 38-13 on the season.
Yehl didn’t start off the best, dealing with some base traffic in the second, but he quickly settled in. He mowed down the Kansas State lineup, had three one-two-three innings and had a no-hitter into the fifth inning. Yehl struck out seven batters in his six and a third innings, had three walks and three hits.
Yehl’s night ended when he finally showed some fatigue in the seventh inning. Kansas State’s Grant Gallagher hit a two-run homer off of him. Then, his night was over.
It took a while for the offense to make Yehl feel comfortable on the mound. WVU had some runners in scoring position, but just couldn’t bring any home. In the sixth inning, the Mountaineers finally started to add some insurance.
The first run of the six happened in true WVU baseball fashion. Sean Smith was on third, and Armani Guzman was at the plate. Guzman took an ugly cut at a bad pitch. Sabins signaled to Guzman, and on the next pitch, Guzman squared for a squeeze bunt. He placed it to the right of the pitcher, which caused the pitcher and third basemen to collide, allowing Smith to score and Guzman to end up safely at first.
Guzman later scored on a wild pitch, and then Brock Wills scored Brodie Kresser on a single.
With a home run from Gavin Kelly in the first inning, WVU led 4-0 after six innings. Smith had a big day from the designated hitter spot and had three hits. The rest of the lineup all registered a hit, and had a total of 11 hits, compared to just 4 from the Wildcats.
After the two-run homer from Kansas State to make it 4-2, Sabins took no chances and called in his best reliever from the bullpen, Ian Korn, who was named an All-Big 12 first team pitcher. Korn was the Thursday starter for WVU’s last series of the regular season against TCU, and had a strong showing in his second start.
Korn had another stellar outing, not being phased with coming out of the bullpen this time around. He closed out the game for the Mountaineers and struck out five of the nine batters he faced. He allowed just one hit in the final inning, and received some help in the outfield from left fielder Matthew Graveline, who caught a deep ball to register the second out.
WVU awaits the winner of Arizona State and Cincinnati. The Mountaineers headed out to the Sun Devils and took the series with two wins. WVU went on the road and lost the series to the Bearcats. The Mountaineers will likely go with pitcher Chansen Cole to insure at trip to the championship game. Cole is WVU’s No. 2 behind Yehl.
The Mountaineers are looking to make it past the semifinals. Last year, WVU was the No. 1 seed and was bounced in the semifinals by Arizona, 12-1. The Wildcats went on to win the Big 12 Tournament.
