West Virgina Crushes Canisius in Home-Opener

Morgantown, WV - The West Virginia Mountaineers (5-4) handled the Canisius Golden Griffins (2-3) in the home-opener Wednesday evening 10-3.

West Virginia put a run on the board in the first after sophomores Logan Sauve and Sam White worked one-out walks and sophomore Ellis Garcia lined a two-out RBI through the left side for the early 1-0 lead.

Canisius freshman starting pitcher Joe LoPinto, again, gave up a pair of one-out walks before West Virginia sophomore Skylar King smacked an RBI single back up the middle.

West Virginia sophomore starting pitcher Gavin Van Kempen gave up a two-run home run to Canisius senior Carlin Dick, tying the game at two. Van Kempen went four innings, gave up the two runs and recorded four strikeouts.

West Virginia reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the inning when sophomore Benjamin Lumsden reached on an errant throw after a groundball to short, Garcia singled into leftfield, then with two outs, senior Reed Chumley hit a deep drive off the centerfield wall for a two RBI triple for the 4-2 advantage.

Canisius freshman reliever Andrew Malec beaned two Mountaineer hitters to begin the fourth. Sam White moved the runners with a bunt, Lumsden smacked an RBI single through the right side and Garcia laid down an RBI sacrifice bunt for the second run of the inning to extend the lead 6-2.

West Virginia added three runs in the third and did all the damage with two outs. Junior reliever Ethan Hennessy walked two before a high fly ball to rightfield from Sauve was dropped by junior Jackson Strong allowed two runners to score and Sam White delivered an RBI single into leftfield for a 9-2 lead.

The Mountaineers added a run in the seventh when freshman Aaron Jamison worked a leadoff walk, stole second and Tyler Cox smacked a single into right field, scoring Jamison as West Virginia took down Canisius 10-3.

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