TCU Takes Advantage of Mountaineer Miscues, Completes Sweep of WVU

The Mountaineers came into this afternoon's game in hopes of salvaging a game in the three-game series against No. 5 TCU. Unfortunately, things went south for WVU in the late innings.

West Virginia received a solid outing on the hill from left-handed freshman pitcher Ben Hampton who struck out five hitters and did a good job of mixing up his pitches to keep the hitters off-balance. He danced in and out of trouble throughout his 5.1 innings of work but did not surrender a run on the day.

WVU broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the 4th thanks to an RBI sac fly from center fielder Victor Scott. The next inning, Scott hit a shot right back up the middle at the pitcher with two runners on. The ball bounced off the pitcher's glove and Paul McIntosh got caught taking too big of a turn at 3rd base and was thrown out to end the inning. The Mountaineers would have had bases loaded with two outs and a chance to extend their 1-0 lead.

The Horned Frogs were threatening to tie the game in the top of the 6th with a runner on 3rd with just one out. WVU head coach Randy Mazey made the surprising change to take out Hampton during the middle of an at-bat where he had the hitter at a 2-2 count. Mazey turned to Jacob Watters who has been very reliable for the Mountaineers this season but came in and walked the pinch hitter. He was able to induce an inning-ending groundball double play to keep the Horned Frogs in check.

Watters took the mound once again in the 7th and with two runners on, he tossed a wild pitch which allowed both baserunners to move into scoring position. He walked three straight batters to hand TCU a 2-1 lead before striking out Conner Shepherd.

The little things continued to add up in the late innings for Mazey's squad as Phillip Sikes sent a deep shot to left field sending Braden Barry up onto the wall in an attempt to rob a home run but he misjudged the ball which landed near where he began his leap and Sikes was rewarded with a leadoff triple.

Zach Ottinger was on the mound for the Mountaineers in the 8th but was yanked after attempting a pickoff to first which sailed past the first baseman, scoring a runner, and moving the baserunner at 1st over to 3rd. TCU's Tommy Sacco followed that up with an RBI triple and Elijah Nunez scored another runner with a groundball to first. Within the blink of an eye, TCU went from being handed the lead to opening up a very comfortable lead.

The Horned Frogs went on to score four more in the 9th and would go on to win 9-1 and collect the series sweep of the Mountaineers.

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