Mountaineers Fall Short Against Blue Devils

West Virginia's offense hindered by Duke arms

The West Virginia Mountaineers (9-6) fall to the Duke Blue Devils (10-7) 2-1 Tuesday evening. Four Duke pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts and held West Virginia to five hits on the day.

West Virginia freshman Grant Hussey hit his team-leading fourth home run of the season, breaking a scoreless game in the fourth and giving the Mountaineers an early 1-0 lead. 

Mountaineers starting pitcher Chris Sleeper allowed one hit through three innings, but the Blue Devils strung together three consecutive hits, capped off by a game-tying RBI double from Luke Storm and Chris Crabtree brought in the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly to centerfield. 

Sleeper loaded the bases before Trey Braithwaite came into the game and ended the inning, striking out Chris Davis. 

West Virginia loaded the bases in the seventh. Reliever Josh Allen struck out two before Austin Davis stepped to the plate, then on the 2-2 pitch, Davis gave it a ride to the warning track as Allen got out of the inning unscathed. 

The Mountaineers left two runners stranded in scoring position in the eighth before going 1-2-3 in the ninth as Duke held on for the 2-1 victory.

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