Mountaineers drop first game in Myrtle Beach to VCU

Conway, SC – It was a beautiful day for baseball at the Brittain Resorts Invitational where the Mountaineers took on the VCU Rams for the first game of the in-season tournament. All started off well as West Virginia starting pitcher B.J. Myers found his rhythm at the beginning of the game having three clean innings. Head Coach Randy Mazey on Myers’ performance, “Good enough to win, not great by any means, but good enough to win.”

In the 6th inning the Rams got to Myers and started getting him to go deeper into counts and drew three walks. Myers finished the game going 6.1 IP giving up two earned runs while striking out five. In the latter half of the 6th the Mountaineers would strike back to tie things up at two with a pinch hit two RBI double from Andrew Zitel.

Shane Ennis came in, in relief for West Virginia and had a pretty solid outing going 2.2 IP and striking out three and keeping things knotted up until extra innings. In the top of the 10th VCU threatened to take the lead with runners on the corners with no outs, which ended Ennis’ outing. Conner Dotson was called from the bullpen.

Dotson fielded a bunt toward the third base side and threw out what would have been the go ahead run at home. He followed that up by picking off the base runner at 2nd base and forcing a pop fly in the infield to get out of the jam.

The 11th inning proved to be a big inning for the Rams’ bats as they plated four runs off three hits which opened things up for VCU. West Virginia didn’t pose much of a threat in the bottom of the 11th, but Andrew Zitel was robbed of a solo home run to end the game.

Coach Mazey on what positives the team can take away from today, “Nothing really. We got to win, we’re just not in a rhythm right now and it seems like we’re not ready to play.”