West Virginia Moves Past Marshall

The Mountaineers handle the Thundering Herd 9-7

Morgantown, WV - The West Virginia Mountaineers (19-6) held off the Marshall Thundering Herd (11-11) Tuesday night 9-7 in the first game of a three-game season series. 

West Virginia sophomore Aidan Major beaned a pair of Marshall batters to start the game and an errant throw on a pickoff attempt to first placed runners at the corners before Gio Ferraro laid down a sacrifice bunt to give the Herd the early 1-0 lead. 

The Mountaineers responded in the bottom of the inning. J.J. Wetherholt started a four-run first inning with a double down the left field line. Then, after Braden Barry moved Wetherholt to third on a sacrifice fly, Dayne Leonard smacked a single through the right side of the infield to tie the game at one. 

Sam White kept the inning alive with a two-out single to centerfield before Ellis Garcia was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Then, on the 2-1 pitch, Landon Wallace cleared the bases with a deep drive to centerfield, ricocheted off the top of the wall for a three-RBI triple and the Mountaineers claimed a 4-1 lead. 

Marshall put up two runs in the second after Major put to aboard and struck out two before Luke Edwards tripled to deep centerfield to get the Thundering Herd within a run, 4-3. 

Caleb McNeely added a run for the Mountaineers in the fourth inning with an RBI double, but Marshall answered in the top of the fifth with a leadoff single and a walk then a wide throw on an attempted 6-4-3 double play put a run on the board for Marshall.

In the bottom of the sixth, Braden Barry smacked a leadoff single, stole second and took third on a high throw to second. Dayne Leonard worked a walk which setup a Caleb McNeely to hit into a double play but not without scoring Braden from third. Then, Sam White crushed a solo home run into the WVU bullpen for the 7-3 lead. 

Marshall scored a run in the seventh and put up two in the eighth, shrinking the deficit back within a run. However, Tevin Tucker and J.J. Wetherholt hit consecutive two-out singles to put runners at the corners, and an attempted steal by Wetherholt, turned into a run down, scored Tucker. 

West Virginia reliever Carlson Reed came into the eight with one on and one-out and kept the Marshall batters on their heels, even after an error continued the eighth inning. He went two innings and struck out five, including retiring the side in the ninth as the Mountaineers held off the Thundering Herd 9-7.

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