WVU Baseball Sweeps Marshall; Kelly Keeps Clobbering

WVU Baseball swept their season series with Marshall on Tuesday, May 5, winning 7-2 behind a pair of home runs from catcher Gavin Kelly at Charleston’s GoMart Ballpark.

That marked Kelly’s third game in a row with a homer for the Mountaineers (32-12, 16-8 Big 12); what’s more, he cleared the fences in consecutive innings, helping West Virginia open a 4-0 lead in the second.

Kelly’s first home run came after battling to a 3-2 count against Marshall left-hander Landen Doll; Paul Schoenfeld followed Kelly with a single, and a Sean Smith walk pushed him into scoring position. Matt Graveline brought Schoenfeld home with a 105 mile per hour single to left.

Matt Ineich homered with two outs in the second, chasing Doll from the game, but the pitching change didn’t work out for the Thundering Herd. Kelly cleared the fences for the second time during the following at-bat.

West Virginia starter David Hagen, meanwhile, pitched five innings of one run ball. Marshall put runners at the corners with no outs in the fourth, scraping a run across on a sacrifice fly, but Hagen managed to wriggle out of the jam after that. He finished his day at 62 pitches, forcing a double play to end the fifth.

The Mountaineers added to their lead as the game went on, staying comfortably ahead of any attempt at a Marshall comeback.

WVU Baseball will return to action on the road against Kansas at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 8, their final road series of the regular season. Currently in second place and four games behind the Jayhawks for the conference lead, a strong performance in Lawrence could propel the Mountaineers toward an electric final weekend.