West Virginia Cruises Past Sooners in Series Opener
The West Virginia Mountaineers (17-21) grabbed the opening game of a three-game series over the Oklahoma Sooners (22-22) Wednesday night 7-1.
The Mountaineers jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first, doing all their damage with two outs when Paul McIntosh (2-4, HR, 2B, RBI) got it started with a solo home run that climbed over the scoreboard, officially marked at 453 feet. Hudson Byorick (2-4, RBI) kept the inning alive, beating out a dribbler off the plate before Alec Burns (0-2, Run, BB) drew a walk to put runners on first and second. Then, Nathan Blasick (1-2, HR, 3 RBI, BB) hit a high fly ball down into shallow leftfield, fading towards the line, and getting by left-fielder Diego Muniz and rolling to the wall as Nathan Blasick hustled around the bases for an inside park to give the Mountaineers the 4-0 advantage.
West Virginia tacked on two more the following inning after Austin Davis (0-3, Run, 2BB) drew a walk, Matt McCormick (1-5, RBI, Run, 2B) hit a deep fly ball into left-center that hopped over the wall for an RBI ground rule double. McIntosh moved McCormick over to third with a sacrifice fly to rightfield before Byorick hit a slow high chopper over to short and, again, beat the wide throw over to first base, extending the Mountaineers lead 6-0.
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Oklahoma got on the board in the fourth when Jimmy Crooks reached first on a tough throw - he quickly proceeded to steal second. Then with two outs, Conor McKenna ripped a single through the left side of the infield to cut the Mountaineer deficit to five.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Paul McIntosh laced a double down the left field line before Byorick advanced him to third with a sacrifice fly to right field. Then on the next pitch, McIntosh scored on a passed ball.
West Virginia starting pitcher Jackson Wolf had another all-conference performance, tossing seven innings with 11 strikeouts and only giving up one run on three hits. Head coach Randy Mazey turned to Noah Short in the eighth after Wolf walked the leadoff hitter. Short faced the minimum in the final two innings, striking out two as the Mountaineers capture game one 7-1.
The Mountaineers and Sooners will conclude the three-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday, with the first game set for 3:00 pm EST, and game two will begin approximately 30 minutes after game one concludes.
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