WVU Baseball Downs BYU with 8-Run Comeback

WVU Baseball authored an eight run comeback at BYU on Saturday, March 29, prevailing 19-16 with the help of six RBI from Jace Rinehart and a Chase Meyer save.

Playing 4,649 feet above sea level, their three-game series with the Cougars saw eighty runs scored, 44 of them by West Virginia. While they gave up 16 runs on the day, the Mountaineers’ pitching staff managed to keep the ball in the yard.

The Mountaineers (22-4, 4-3 Big 12) led 7-0 early after home runs from Logan Sauve and Armani Guzman, but the Cougars leapt ahead with 15 unanswered runs. Ten runs scored in the bottom of the fourth, seven of them aided by a series of West Virginia errors, but the Mountaineers’ offense gave BYU no time to sit with the lead.

Spencer Barnett scraped a run across with a two-out single, sparking a six run rally that saw Sauve draw a bases loaded walk; Kyle West and Rinehart doubled and singled a pair of runs home, respectively as the Mountaineers immediately closed within striking distance 15-13.

Rinehart’s three-run bomb in the seventh knotted the game, then Barnett, West and Rinehart each singled in a run the following frame to put West Virginia on top. The Cougars loaded the bases against Jack Kartsonas in the bottom of the ninth, queuing head coach Steven Sabins to turn to Meyer for the save. Meyer forced an RBI groundout, then got catcher Parker Goff (who picked up three hits and a walk on the day) to strike out swinging on a payoff pitch to earn the save.

WVU Baseball will return to action at Ohio State at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1.