No. 15 West Virginia baseball isn’t known for hitting the long ball. Before its midweek game against Marshall, the Mountaineers have hit the 10th-most home runs in the Big 12. But, as of late, WVU has hit some over the fence.

The Mountaineers hit three home runs, with two coming from catcher Gavin Kelly, to beat the in-state rival, Thundering Herd, 7-2 Tuesday night down in Charleston. Over the past three games, WVU has hit eight home runs after going three straight games with none.

With the help of the homers, WVU moved to 32-12 on the season, and has swept Marshall in all three meetings this season. The Mountaineers are now on a four-game winning streak after sweeping Kansas State over the weekend.

WVU’s homers started right in the first inning with Kelly coming up to the plate. On a full count, Kelly rocked one over the wall for the first run of the game, making it 1-0 WVU. The next inning, Matt Ineich jumped on the first pitch and hit one out. Ineich’s homer forced a pitching change before Kelly approached the plate for the second time. With a new pitcher and a 3-1 count, Kelly drilled another one 415 feet for his second home run of the game in two at-bats. The Mountaineers led 4-0 after two innings, hitting three home runs.

Kelly kept his bat hot, especially the big bat. The sophomore’s second home run was his 10th of the season, and Kelly has hit a homer in three straight games. He finished the night going two-for-three with two RBIs.

Aside from the deep ball, Matthew Graveline singled to score an extra run in the first, and Zahir Barjam grounded out to bring one in the bottom of the fifth. WVU was up 5-1. Sean Smith singled up the middle to add more support in the sixth, 6-1. The Mountaineers had nine hits in the seven-run game. Kelly, Ineich and Tyrus Hall all had two hits apiece.

David Hagen returned as the starter for WVU in the midweek matchup. Steve Sabins went with Bryson Thacker in WVU’s last midweek game, which was against Pitt. That didn’t work, so Hagen made the start on Tuesday night. Hagen went longer than he usually does, and pitched five innings. He worked his way into trouble a couple of times, but maneuvered out of it. Hagen struck out just one batter, allowed three hits, walked one batter and had one earned run.

Ben McDougal came in relief of Hagen with a 5-1 lead behind him. He pitched two innings and allowed a homer from Marshall. Reese Bassinger pitched the eighth and J.T. Huether came in to close out the game. Huether struck out two.

The Mountaineers have a lot of momentum after a poor 1-3 week. WVU has won four straight, and the offense has scored 36 runs over four games. Sabins’ squad will need as much of a boost of confidence as it can get because WVU heads to Kansas for a three-game series over the weekend, who is the current No. 7-ranked team in the country and the best team in the Big 12.