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Mountaineers Cruise past Sooners

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The West Virginia Mountaineers (15-11, 1-4) got their first Big 12 conference win of the season Saturday afternoon. WVU put up eight runs in the eighth inning to put away the No. 23 Oklahoma Sooners (22-6,4-1) 12-4 at Monongalia County Ball Park.

After dropping game one Friday night 2-1, the Mountaineers put up runs early with some aggressive base running and big hits during key moments.

West Virginia grabbed an early lead after Brandon White singled and stole second to get himself in scoring position. Then, Marcus Inman stepped up to the plate with two outs and smacked one back up the middle to bring in White to put WVU up 1-0.

In the bottom of the third, Austin Davis reached on a bunt and Brandon White drove the ball to deep left-centerfield for an RBI double to give the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead.

Paul McIntosh hit his seventh homerun of the season with a towering solo shot into the bullpen in leftfield.

West Virginia starting pitcher Jackson Wolfe gave up his first run in the fifth on a solo homerun from Brylie Ware but finished the inning strong with three consecutive outs. Wolfe went five innings only giving up the one run and had six strikeouts.

Freshman Gabe Kurtzhals took the mound in the sixth with the Mountaineers leading 3-1 and put himself in a hole early walking lead-off hitter Cade Cavalli and Brady Harlan doubled into rightfield putting runners on second and third to start the inning.

Then with one out, Diego Muniz hit a sacrifice groundball to second scoring Cavalli to get within one. Brandon Zaragoza tied the game with a hard ground ball to a diving Tevin Tucker but was unable to get the throw over to first in time as Harlan crossed Homeplate. Tristan Hudson came in to get WVU out of the inning.

The Mountaineers reclaimed the lead in the seventh after Tevin Tucker doubled down the leftfield line and Tyler Doanes hit a hard ground ball into left-center field for an RBI double.

West Virginia broke the game open in the eighth as Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson worked five pitchers in the inning. The Sooners walked five, hit one, and the Mountaineers took advantage of the free base runners with four hits.

“It was a sigh of relief.” Commented head coach Randy Mazey after the game. Every game we play we got enough pitching to keep us in every game. Enough hitting to keep us in every game. Its nice to go into a ninth inning with a nine run lead, that doesn’t happen very often for us.

Doubles from Kevin Brophy and Tevin Tucker, early in the inning scored three. A wild pitch and walking TJ Lake with the bases loaded scored two more runs and back to back RBI singles from McIntosh and Ivan Gonzalez capped off the eight-run inning as the Mountaineers tied the series 1-1 with a 12-4 win.

Mazey felt good about how the Mountaineers bounced back after dropping game one.

“You got a team that doesn’t feel sorry for themselves doesn’t get down on themselves.” Stated Mazey. “We needed a win. We needed a win in the worst way. We lost the first three games to Baylor, its like we’re down three nothing in the first inning. And last night after the game, its like, alright it’s not that big of a deal now we’re down 4-0, we just gotta tie the score and you can tie the score until you score the first one. Now we’re down 4-1. We gotta keep going.”

The Mountaineers will look to take the series Sunday afternoon inside Monongalia County Ballpark at 1:00 pm est.

 

West Virginia Box Score
POS#PLAYERABRHRBI2B3BHRBBKHBPSFAVG
2b1Doanes, T.41110001100.317
cf7White, B.32211002000.271
rf31Hill, D.41000001000.292
1b25Inman, M.30110000210.235
pr12Lake, TJ02010001000.183
c34McIntosh, P51230010100.264
3b32Gonzalez, I.41211001100.273
dh5Strowd, K.00000000000
ph17Dull, P.10000000000.200
ph45Zitel, A.00000000000.206
ph/1b13Brophy, K.31121000000.178
ss2Tucker, T42212000000.234
lf21Davis, A.41100000200.179
Team Batting Totals351212115016710

 

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