Duke comes out Swinging and stun Mountaineers

The Duke Blue Devils (33-25) scored four runs in two of the first three innings and that’s all it took to upset the West Virginia Mountaineers (38-21) Saturday night inside Monongalia County Ballpark. Even though the defense settled in, WVU couldn’t stay poised at the plate and was shut out on their homefield.

As expected, All-American West Virginia starting pitcher Alek Manoah was making quick work of the Blue Devils getting two outs on just four pitches, including a strikeout, to begin the game. However, Matt Mervis sat on a slider for a double up the right field line and Michael Rothenberg followed suit with an RBI triple into deep centerfield that just missed Brandon White’s glove as he crashed headfirst into the wall.

As you can imagine, a packed stadium was silent, in fear of the worst, as medical staff attended to a motionless White lying along the wall and his teammates looked on. Although it appeared he was going to be carted off the field, he sat up, shook it off and remained in the game.

“Something told me I was good to go, so I got up and was ready.” said White

When play resumed, Kyle Gallagher worked a walk on a full count. Then on the next pitch to Erickson Nichols, Manoah threw it in the dirt and as the ball rolled to the back stop, Rothenberg scored to give Duke the early 2-0 lead.

In the third, Tyler Doanes hit a sharp one-out single back up the middle. Darius Hill singled into right field, however, Doanes was caught in no mans land after rounding second, and when he went to return to the bag, it seemed shortstop Wil Hoyle was in his way, even though Doanes did not contact him. Doanes was tagged out to end the inning.

West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey had a chat with the umpires, but no review and play continued.

In the bottom of the inning, Manoah walked Joey Loperfido. Then on a pitch in the dirt, Loperfido takes off for second, catcher Ivan Gonzalez comes up with the ball, throws to second but was ruled safe. Mazey asked for a review, nonetheless the call would stand.

Manoah walked the bases loaded with one out before he got Gallagher out swinging. Then on the first pitch, Nichols hit a blooper back to Manoah and he went to home for the force out. But wait a minute, Duke head coach Chris Pollard wants a review.

“I definitely thought it was an out.” Said Gonzalez. I mean, I thought I had the ball, had possession and stepped on the plate. The call didn’t go our way and you just got to keep moving forward.You can’t let one call determine the game for you.”

The umpires overturn the call and Mazey came out of the dugout hot and was immediately ejected.

Once play resumed again, Chris Crabtree singled into center field driving in another run, but the Blue Devils were looking for more. Rothenberg was being waved home from second, Brandon White, showing his toughness, gunned him down at the plate. Pollard asked for another review. However, the call would stand.

After all the chaos in the third inning, WVU assistant coach Steve Sabins took control of the team and gave them some advice.

“Its like we couldn’t get our footing early on because it was so choppy.” Said Sabins I don’t know how many reviews there were – guys were talking to hitters and talking to pitchers and fans getting ejected. So, I got the team together in the fourth inning and just told guys to slow down. What we’ve done up to this point is not working. Try to do something a little bit different, just be ourselves and play good baseball.”

In all the pandemonium of reviews, a fan was ejected for climbing on top of the dugout and shouted at the umpires while they were reviewing a play. As he stomped away climbed off and willingly was ejected from the game. Yeah, the atmosphere was as you expect in a sold-out venue in Morgantown, passionate.

Sabbins continued, stating that he has never been a part of a game like that before.

Jarvis kept the Mountaineers off-balance all night, to the point that they were swinging at balls in the dirt, some of which hit in front of home plate.

“He was mixing his pitches really well.” Explained Darius Hill ( 3-3, double). “Most right handed pitchers don’t have the change-up going for both righties and lefties, but he had it going both ways today and it was really keeping us off-balanced. Then he was locating his fastball enough, in the middle innings, to keep us off the change-up and he was able to finish us at the end.

Manoah settled in the next three innings striking out five and not giving up a hit before Dillon Meadows took the mound not allowing a hit and retiring four.

Jarvis tossed a career high eight innings, 126 total pitches and 11 strikeouts as he held the Mountaineers scoreless, before Thomas Girard closed the game out with a 1-2-3 inning.

“Though game today, I thought we got outside of ourselves a little bit.” Said Sabins. “Again, the atmosphere was unbelievable. The fans have absolutely brought the energy here for two straight days. Its been really fun to be part of that. I think we’re all starting to realize that, that’s what West Virginia Baseball can be. It’s been a blast to play. It didn’t go our way tonight but get an opportunity to get to play some more baseball tomorrow.”

West Virginia will face Texas A&M (38-22-1) at noon est in an elimination game. The winner takes on Duke at 6:00 pm.