WVU Baseball Drops Series Opener Against Big 12’s Best

WVU Baseball has a chance to cement their place atop the Big 12 this weekend with a home series against conference leader UCF… but they’ll need to wait at least another day to do so, as they dropped the series opener 5-0.

The Mountaineers (20-6, 7-3 Big 12) managed just three hits, none of them for extra bases. Three hit batters and a walk gave them additional opportunities, as did a throwing error in the third that put Matt Graveline on second base with no outs. Armani Guzman tried to manufacture a run after a fifth inning single, stealing second and taking third on a sacrifice fly, but a Matt Ineich groundout ended the threat.

UCF led 4-0 at that point, chasing starting pitcher Dawson Montesa from the game after four innings, three earned runs and seven strikeouts. Ian Korn allowed another run in the fifth, but that mattered little as West Virginia went a combined 0-for-16 with runners on base during the game. While they only struck out seven times, even their productive outs weren’t enough to scrape a run across.

Korn ate up four innings, preserving the rest of the bullpen for the remainder of the weekend series; true freshman reliever Weston Smith added a clean ninth inning with the game close to out of reach. After threatening in the middle innings, West Virginia’s last nine batters went down in order, providing limited opportunities for the team and the crowd to rally.

WVU Baseball will attempt to tie their series with UCF at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 4.