WVU Baseball Plays 12 Inning Marathon; Rain Delay Suspends Slog

WVU Baseball endured an 11 and a half inning marathon at Cincinnati on Friday, April 24 that lasted more than four hours. In the end, neither team could crown a winner.

Storms swept the area in the bottom of the 12th inning and, with no break in the weather in sight, officials decided to suspend the game tied 5-5 with one out and a 3-2 count to Bearcats’ nine-hole hitter Charlie Niehaus. Play will resume at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, the time originally slated for the second game of the Mountaineers’ series with Cincinnati.

West Virginia took a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a home run from catcher Gavin Kelly, back after an injury scare the previous weekend. Mountaineers starter Ian Korn ran into trouble in the fifth, chased from the game as Cincinnati began a four-run rally to take the lead. Ben Lumsden doubled down the line to plate two in the eighth, then Reese Bassinger promptly gave up a solo shot in the bottom of the frame.

Matt Ineich walked, Gavin Kelly singled and Paul Schoenfeld knocked in the tying run in the ninth; Bassinger struck out the side to send the game to extras and stayed on into the 12th, striking out seven batters across 4.1 innings and 73 pitches while preserving the rest of WVU Baseball’s shorthanded bullpen. The Mountaineers put two aboard with no outs in the tenth but couldn’t manufacture a run.