WVU Baseball Crushes JMU Behind Big First Inning

WVU Baseball rolled past JMU 11-1 on Tuesday, March 18, throttling the Dukes 11-1 in eight innings behind a firework-filled first inning in one of the lone bits of good news to hit the Mountaineers and their fans this week.

The win marks West Virginia’s 150th at Kendrick Family Field since it opened in April 2015.

The Mountaineers (17-1) led 8-0 at the end of the first with the help of a three-run homer from senior first baseman Grant Hussey. After leadoff man Brodie Kresser worked a ten pitch at-bat to begin the frame, eventually freezing on a strikeout, eight straight West Virginia batters reached base, capped by Hussey’s 409-foot blast to the opposite field.

After a Kresser groundout, the Mountaineers loaded the bases once again, but the Dukes finally managed to escape the inning with a Gavin Kelly flyout.

West Virginia then put on cruise control, tacking on one run apiece in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings… the last a walkoff single from Jorge Valdes to give the Mountaineers a double digit lead and trigger the run rule. The Mountaineers racked up nine hits, 11 walks, five stolen bases and, in a less savory statistical category, five hit by pitches.

West Virginia’s pitching staff, meanwhile, held the Dukes to just one run, an RBI single in the third inning. Luke Lyman struck out the side on 13 pitches in the eighth, the exclamation point on a strong — if modest — day at the office.

Up next, WVU Baseball will conclude their series with the Dukes at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 19.