No. 20 West Virginia Pounds Pitt

Pittsburgh, PA – The No. 20 West Virginia Mountaineers (32-18) completed the series sweep of the Backyard Brawl over the Pitt Panthers (20-32) 9-4 Tuesday Night inside PNC Park. The bats continued to stay hot after a 15 hit performance Sunday against Kansas State.

Nico Popa hit a long high solo homerun down the left field line in the bottom of the second inning to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.

The Mountaineers would quickly grab the lead in the third. TJ Lake started the inning with a double into left-centerfield, then Tevin Tucker laid a perfect bunt down and reached as Pitt third baseman Sky Duff didn’t risk the throw to first.

Now with runners at the corners, Tyler Doanes ripped a ground ball down the left field line for an RBI double to tie the game.

Brandon White hit an RBI sacrifice bunt to second before Darius Hill flared one in the gap for a stand-up RBI double to cap off a three-run third inning.

Pitt reliever Chris Gomez came to the mound in the fifth and on the first pitch, Doanes lined a base hit over first baseman Bryce O’Farrell’s head. White moved Doanes over on a sacrifice bunt.

Then with two outs, Marques Inman hit a high chopper to third for a single to put runners on the corners. Paul McIntosh hit a hard ground ball up the middle and second baseman Luco Lotito couldn’t handle as McIntosh reaches first and Doanes scored. Ivan Gonzalez hit an RBI single to push the Mountaineer lead to four.

Brady Devereux took the hill in the sixth and  the Mountaineer offense continued. Brandon White worked a walk before Darius Hill smacked his second RBI double of the game, giving WVU a 6-1 lead.

The Mountaineers started to pour it on in the seventh when Ivan Gonzalez and Kevin Brophy hit back-to-back one-out singles, followed by TJ Lake going opposite field into the left field corner for an RBI double. Then with two outs, Tyler Doanes goes opposite with a line drive that rolled to the wall for a two RBI double as West Virginia went up 9-1.

Snyder ended his night after seven innings with 11 strikeouts only giving up three hits and a run.

To start the eighth, Dillon Meadows took the mound for the Mountaineers. He started the inning with consecutive walks, then Cole MacLaren hit a three-run homerun. Meadows got the next three outs including a strikeout.

Madison Jeffrey came in the ninth and put down three straight Panthers as West Virginia take their sixth straight over Pitt.

West Virginia will host George Washington in their season series finale inside Monongalia County Ballpark starting Thursday evening at 6:30.