WVU Baseball Wins Suspended Game; Drops Nightcap 5-2

WVU Baseball and the Cincinnati Bearcats played more than 12 innings of baseball on Friday, April 24 but couldn’t come away with a winner as a rain delay suspended the game; the Mountaineers (28-11, 13-7 Big 12) wriggled out of a jam to claim Friday’s game 9-5, then dropped the regularly scheduled game 5-2 in a quiet afternoon at the plate.

Chansen Cole came on in relief of Reese Bassinger with the count full and one out in the bottom of the 12th pitching to Bearcats’ nine-hole hitter Charlie Niehaus. Cole landed a strike to retire Niehaus looking, then forced a quick groundout from Jackson Smith to escape the frame. West Virginia’s first six batters reached in the top of the 13th, four straight singles aiding them in a four-run rally.

Cole struggled in the bottom of the frame, allowing a one-out double and a shallow single to right that couldn’t plate the runner, then forced a double play to seal the win. Head coach Steve Sabins kept Cole on the bump to begin game two, and the Bearcats tagged him for a pair of runs in three innings. The Mountaineers battled back to tie the game in the fourth with a Sean Smith RBI single and a trio of wild pitches that helped Smith progress all the way home, but Cincinnati returned the favor in the fifth with two runs scored on wild throws from West Virginia reliever David Hagen.

West Virginia loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate, but big swings from Brodie Kresser and Brock Wills ended in a pair of game-sealing strikeouts. WVU Baseball will play to take the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 26.