WVU’s Ninth Inning Grand Slam and 15-4 Final Evade Texas Tech Sweep

In Saturday’s doubleheader, West Virginia (23-14, 6-5) allowed No. 8 Texas Tech (29-13, 9-5) a pair of wins and a combined 19 runs. Today, the Mountaineers nearly made up for it in front of 3,973 fans.

Dan Law Field in Lubbock, Texas set the scene for, potentially, a sixth Texas Tech season sweep. The Red Raiders were flying high off yesterday’s action, but the Mountaineers evaded straight losses with a dominant 15-4 finale.

The top of the Mountaineer order came out strong throughout the game, but the first at-bats for Austin Davis, JJ Wetherholt, and Holbrook all resulted in first inning runs. Davis doubled and stole second base to begin action; he was quickly brought home by a Wetherholt single. A sac bunt from 3-hole Victor Scott advanced Wetherholt to third, and the freshman came home off a McGwire Holbrook single into center field that put the Mountaineers ahead 2-0.

Red Raider right-handed starter Chase Hampton stayed in a third of an inning before being replaced by the second of an eventual seven Texas Tech pitchers in lefty Mason Molina. Molina sat down the final two outs straight and brought that strategy into 1-2-3 second and fourth innings as well. Molina didn’t allow a hit until the third inning, when Braden Barry singled. The Mountaineer left fielder was picked off at second for the inning’s final out.

On the mound for the Mountaineers: righty Zach Bravo. He shut the Red Raiders down in 1-2-3 fashion in the first and would have had a similar inning in the second had the Mountaineer infield converted a double play. The ball reached first baseman Grant Hussey just shy of the out, but Bravo added a strikeout and a groundout for close the second.

Bravo forced a series of fly-outs in the third inning, but a hit from Cole Stilwell fell shallow into the left field corner, allowing Easton Murrell to score from first base. Bravo expended 46 pitches, a mixture of breaking balls, change-ups, and fastballs, through three innings; thirty-three were were strikes, and the Mountaineers lead 2-1.

Left field got significant action in the middle of the game, primarily from Texas Tech batters. With two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Bravo allowed Hudson White a walk, the catcher’s second of the day, and he was brought home shortly after by a double into left field from Parker Kelly to even the score.

Feeling the heat of a conference sweep, the Mountaineer bats heated up in the fifth inning. Back-to-back singles from Davis and Wetherholt lead-off the fifth inning. With runners on the corners and new Red Raider right-handed reliever Trendan Parish on the mound, the middle of West Virginia’s order kicked it into gear. Scott sent a ground ball to second base for the inning’s first out, but it moved Wetherholt to second and scored Davis. Wetherholt advanced to third base off the following Holbrook groundout, but was brought home when Barry smacked a double into the left field corner to increase the Mountaineer lead to 4-2. WVU earned a third, fifth-inning run when Hussey singled into left field and brought Barry home for the inning’s fourth hit.

Despite allowing Stilwell a fifth inning home run shot over the left field wall, Bravo left the game after 4.1 innings, six hits, and three runs. Seventy pitches saw 46 strikes and a trio of Ks. He was replaced by Chase Smith, who closed down the inning in two batters.

Mountaineer fielding got sloppier in the sixth and seventh innings, and the latter produced the bullpen’s second offering, righty Noah Short. Murrell lead-off the inning with a single, but ended his run at third base after a series of throwing errors by the West Virginia infield. He scored on a fly-out to left field from Stilwell to close the gap to a concerning 5-4 deficit. All three of the seventh inning’s Texas Tech outs were direct from Short’s hand to bat contact to the glove of Barry in left field, and the Mountaineers staved off a Red Raider rebound. West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey put his right-handed reliever Trey Braithwaite in in the eighth, and he kept Texas Tech off the board for the rest of the game, allowing only a pair of walks through 31 pitches and seven batters faced.

Meanwhile, the Mountaineers were preparing for an epic ninth inning batter’s marathon. Over the course of five different Texas Tech pitchers, West Virginia added 10 runs.

Tucker lead-off the ninth with a single turned two on a passed ball, and the base path chaos began. The top of the order’s Davis sent him home on a double into left field, and Wetherholt’s at-bat culminated in Davis scoring as well to up the score to 7-4. With no outs, the order progressed. A Scott ground-out secured the inning’s first out, but the Mountaineer momentum was already in full swing. Wetherholt scored on a wild pitch for the eighth West Virginia run, and Texas Tech freshman lefty Brendan Lysik, the sixth TTU pitcher, entered in his collegiate debut. His welcome to Big 12 baseball took a turn for the worse when he walked Grant Hussey to load the bases with a single out.

A freshman match-up came to the plate in DH Evan Smith, and the fifth pitch of his at-bat soared out of the ballpark for his first career Grand Slam. He trailed Ben Abernathy, Barry, and Hussey home to the tune of a 12-4 Mountaineer lead. Twelve runs on 14 hits was a solid close to the weekend for WVU, but the scoring wasn’t over.

Kluska singled and moved to second on a groundout from Tucker, in his second at-bat of the inning. The Mountaineers, in familiar ninth inning, two out territory, added three straight runs on singles from Davis and Scott and a double from Wetherholt. The Mountaineer lineup exhausted thirteen batters in the ninth inning for 10 runs on eight hits. West Virginia’s final 15 runs came from 18 hits.

Braithwaite shut the Red Raider side down to finish the game and help bring his team a conclusive 15-4 victory. Today’s finale ushered in only the second 2022 loss at Rip Griffin Park, and the No. 8 Red Raiders move to 29-14 (9-6) after only plating four on ten hits. The Mountaineers head home 24-14 (7-5); Smith earned his first win of the season (1-1) and Braithwaite got his fifth save, while Texas Tech’s Molina earned his fifth loss (1-5).

The Mountaineer baseball team returns to Monongalia County Ballpark on Wednesday to welcome the Penn State Nittany Lions at 6:30 p.m. That game is a Gold Rush and a Foam Finger Giveaway.