WVU Baseball Stages Epic Comeback But Falls in End

Morgantown, W.Va.— WVU Baseball trailed 6-0 after two innings in their NCAA Regional winners game matchup against Kentucky on Saturday, May 30. While the Mountaineers roared all the way back, tying the game on two separate occasions thanks to tenacious base running from first baseman Armani Guzman and a pair of Gavin Kelly home runs, they couldn’t come up with the go-ahead run, falling 11-9 to the Wildcats to push their season to the brink.

Kentucky scored four runs in the first inning, benefitting from Brodie Kresser’s mishandling a potential double play ball at second base. Mountaineers left-hander and staff ace Maxx Yehl began to spiral from there, facing a trio of full counts and exiting with a reported injury after two outs, four runs (none earned) and 36 pitches.

Ian Korn entered in relief and settled in after allowing two runs in the second inning. The Mountaineers’ bats, for their part, started to build momentum in the top of the frame, putting runners at the corners with one out, but Sean Smith tried to race home on a ground ball that Wildcats’ starter Nate Harris fielded cleanly, throwing him out at third to quash the rally.

Mountaineers Mash

West Virginia broke through the following inning on a two-run homer from Kelly; they continued to close the gap the following frame with a two-out rally from the bottom of the order. Ben Lumsden, Friday night’s hero, singled before scoring on a Tyrus Hall double.

Hall took third on a wild pitch, then came home on a Harris balk. A pitching change did nothing to slow the Mountaineers momentum as they went on to load the bases, plating another run when Sean Smith wore a pitch… but Matthew Graveline flew out to end the inning with West Virginia tantalizingly close to a tie game.

Guzman manufactured the equalizer in the fifth, drawing a leadoff walk before taking second on a Kresser bunt. He went on to steal third, drawing an errant throw from Kentucky catcher Owen Jenkins that bounded into left field, allowing Guzman to trot home with the game tied.

Close… But Not Close Enough

A Kresser error got the Wildcats’ bats going in the bottom of the inning, however, chasing Korn from the game with the bases loaded. Reese Bassinger entered and worked a three-pitch strikeout, then allowed a two-run single to center. Paul Schoenfeld’s throw went wide of first base, but Guzman recovered the ball and threw to Kelly, nailing another runner at home to end the inning.

Kelly led off the sixth with his second home run of the game; Guzman doubled with a hit that dropped in no man’s land to begin the seventh, scoring the tying run once again on a lofty Hall double to right. Once again, West Virginia couldn’t come up with the crucial tiebreaker. Bassinger ran into trouble in the eighth, hitting two batters and allowing an infield single.

Kentucky pinch-hitter Luke Lawrence pulled a single to right, one that Lumsden managed to cut off and prevent from plating more than a run, but the Mountaineers fell behind nonetheless. Head coach Steve Sabins went to Ben McDougal, who knocked in two more runs. West Virginia put two aboard with nobody out in the ninth, but Kresser hit into a double play; Lumsden knocked in a run, but pinch-hitter Zahir Barjam popped up to left to end it.

WVU Baseball will face Wake Forest with their season on the line at 12 p.m. on Sunday, May 31. The winner of that game will advance to face Kentucky in the second leg of a doubleheader that evening.