WVU Baseball
WVU Baseball Drops Series Opener to Arizona State
The No. 17 WVU baseball team dropped its series opener to No. 22 Arizona State, 14-4 in eight innings, Friday night at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The Mountaineers fall to 17-5 overall and 5-2 in the Big 12 while the Sun Devils improve to 20-6 and 5-2 in conference play.
West Virginia managed 13 hits on the night, led by three from graduate student Sean Smith. Sophomore Gavin Kelly, graduate student Brodie Kresser, and senior Paul Schoenfeld each added two hits with Kelly collecting two RBI.
The Mountaineers jumped out to an early lead just two batters into the game as sophomore Matt Ineich walked and came around to score on a double by Kelly. The Sun Devils matched WVU in the home half with a leadoff home run from the Big 12’s top hitter, Landon Hairston.
In the second, West Virginia regained the lead as Smith drove in Wills with a single.
Junior Dawson Montesa followed with a pair of scoreless innings, but ran into trouble in the fourth, beginning with a leadoff home run by Nu’u Contrades. A bases-loaded walk gave ASU the lead before Hairston hit his fourth grand slam of the season to expand the deficit for the Mountaineers.
In the fifth, Kresser doubled home Schoenfeld to get one run back, but Arizona State responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning.
Kelly had his second double of the game, and Big 12’s leading 13th, in the sixth to drive in a run before ASU put up another three-spot in the home half. The Sun Devils tacked on a run in the eighth to put the game away via run-rule.
The Mountaineers will look to rebound on Saturday with first pitch set for 9:30 p.m. ET.
