Hussey's Walk-Off Moves Mountaineers Past Rider

Morgantown, WV - West Virginia mounted its fifth comeback win of the season after knocking off Rider Tuesday night 5-4 on a walk-off double from West Virginia native freshman Grant Hussey.

"For a West Virginia kid to get the first walk-off of the year in this park in front of our fans is just a really cool moment for that kid," said West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey.

Rider grabbed the early 1-0 advantage in the top of the second before West Virginia tied it up in the bottom half of the inning. Grant Hussey doubled off the right-centerfield wall and Mikey Kluska brought him around the base pads with an RBI double down the left field line, tying the game at one.

Austin Davis led off the bottom of the third with a deep ground ball over to short and beat the throw for a leadoff single. Then, McGwire Holbrook smacked a two-hop double off the left field wall to give the Mountaineers a 2-1 lead.

The Broncs regained the lead in the seventh when an errant throw from third sparked a three-run inning. However, the Mountaineers tied the game back up in the eighth after J.J. Wetherholt delivered a leadoff single, Victor Scott drew a walk and McGuire Holbrook placed a groundball through the left side, loading the bases with no outs before Hussey hit an RBI sacrifice fly and Mikey Kluska brought in the tying run on a fielder's choice.

It took an extra inning to decide this one and in the bottom of the tenth inning, Evan Smith worked a leadoff walk before Hussey smacked a double into right-centerfield, bringing around Smith for the walk-off RBI double as the Mountaineers rallied for the 5-4 win.

"It wasn't a pretty game by any stretch of the imagination, but man, what a great lesson for us. If you don't show up and play well, anybody on our schedule can show up and beat you," said West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey. "That wasn't easy for those guys (Rider) to travel over here and make the five-hour drive get off the bus and play a game, but they came to beat our butts and they were getting ready to if we wouldn't have gotten a couple of clutch hits at the end."

"It's a team effort," added Hussey. "Evan Smith had a nice at-bat before and got the momentum rolling and I just kept it going."

Michael Kilker picked up his first win of the season after eight Mountaineers took the mound.

That's about average for us, I'd say. That's kind of the strength of our team, I think. We have a lot of guys that we can go to in the bullpen. If that game would have gone eight more innings, we'd still have plenty of arms available, that's the complexion of our team, so if we get into a game like that where both teams have to use bullpens, I think; it's to our advantage."

West Virginia is scheduled to be back in action on Friday evening inside Monongalia County Ballpark in the first of a three-game series against Ohio State, with the first pitch set for six.

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