No. 11 West Virginia Pounds Pitt (Again)
Morgantown, WV – West Virginia shutout the Pitt Panthers (20-22) with a 10-0 seven inning decision at Monongalia County Ball Park Wednesday night, claiming the season series and extending the Mountaineers (34-11) winning streak to nine on the season.
West Virginia freshman Carson Estridge made his third start of the season, his second in consecutive weeks, and set a career-high seven strikeouts while holding the Panthers to three hits in four scoreless innings of work.
“He’s kind of tricky,” said head coach Randy Mazey. “He doesn’t throw as hard as the other guys, it’s a fastball that’s a little bit harder to hit.”
“We just got to get his endurance up,” continued Mazey. “He had an injury to start the season – missed the first month. So, he’s just now catching his groove, I think. So, four inning was about the max for him, but he went out there, struck a lot of guys out and threw up zeros.”
West Virginia freshman Carson Estridge delivers a pitch in the second inning against the Pitt Panters.
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The Mountaineers quickly got on the board in the first when J.J. Wetherholt hit a one-out single, stole second and an errant throw gave Wetherholt third before Landon Wallace grabbed an RBI with a single to right field.
“This atmosphere just got our guys so energized,” Mazey said. “We literally didn’t give away an at-bat the entire day. Our guys are ready to play, ready to make this whole community proud of what we’re doing.”
Caleb McNeely lined a solo home run in the second inning and the Mountaineers continued its onslaught in the third when a single form Wetherholt place runners at the corners and Landon Wallace grabbed his second RBI of the night with his second consecutive RBI single to right field and Braden Barry hit a sacrifice RBI to the Mountaineers a 4-0 advantage.
The Mountaineers broke the game open in the fourth after Wetherholt smashed a three-run opposite field home run in the fourth.
Freshman Gavin Van Kempen picked up where Estridge left off in the fifth in tossed three scoreless inning and struck out three to close out the game for the Mountaineers.
Wallace raked in his third RBI single in the sixth and Braden Barry followed with a hard-hit RBI to left field for the 9-0 West Virginia lead.
In the seventh, Caleb McNeely received a walk before Ellis Garcia ripped a double down the left field line, scoring McNeely, and in a rare occurrence, the mercy-rule was put in place as the Mountaineers grabbed game two of the Backyard Brawl 10-0.
“With the rain, I didn’t want to get into a game like this and then have the rain come in and have everybody sit for an hour and then have to finish and so this is one of the only times I think to do it that way.”
West Virginia will look for the season series sweep at Pitt next Tuesday with the first pitch set for 6:00 p.m. EST.
The Mountaineers are back in action Friday night at 6:30 p.m. EST inside Monongalia County Ballpark against the Oklahoma Sooners in the first of a three-game series.
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