West Virginia Powers Past Baylor for the Series Sweep

Waco, TX - The West Virginia Mountaineers (33-11, 11-4) swept the Baylor Bears (15-29, 6-15) with a dominating 18-4 victory Sunday afternoon. Four Mountaineers notched home runs, including a pinch-hit grand slam from freshman Nick Barrone in the ninth inning. With the win, West Virginia sits a game ahead of Oklahoma State for lone possession of first place in the Big 12 Conference standings.

West Virginia put three runs on the board in the first with Tevin Tucker leading off the inning with a base hit back up the middle, followed by a pair of walks and Dayne Leonard brought the two runs across home with a single through the left side, then Caleb McNeely delivered a sacrifice fly ball to centerfield for the early 3-0 advantage.

In the bottom of the second, Baylor cut the West Virginia lead to a run after the Bears loaded the bases and scored on a pair of fielder's choices to put the score at 3-2.

Dayne Leonard extended the West Virginia lead back to three with a two-run home run in the top of the third.

The Bears got back within a run with an RBI sacrifice from Daniel Altman and Hunter Teplanszky provided an RBI single in the fourth but J.J. Wetherholt and Landon Wallace blasted back-to-back so home runs in the fifth to keep the Mountaineers lead to three 7-4.

West Virginia produced a run in the seventh when J.J. Wetherholt led off the inning with a base hit over to the short stop, Landon Wallace followed with a single up the middle to place runners at the corners and Braden Barry laid a bunt down to score Wetherholt and give the Mountaineers the 8-4 advantage.

The Mountaineers broke the game open in the eighth. Three consecutive singles to begin the inning, capped off with an RBI single from Wetherholt, Then, with two outs and the bases loaded, Evan Smith lifted a high fly ball, and it got up into the winds in Waco, while three Baylor defenders converged on the play, but the ball dropped just inside the left field line as three runs scored and Smith standing on second. Grant Hussey capped off the five-run eighth inning with a drive back up the middle for an RBI single as West Virginia grabbed a 13-4 advantage.

West Virginia constructed a five-run ninth inning, highlighted by a grand slam by pinch-hitter Nick Barrone on the first pitch as the Mountaineer lead swelled grew, 18-4.

Mountaineer relievers Grant Siegal, David Hagaman, and Gavin Van Kempen combined for 5.1 scoreless innings of work with Siegal collecting the win and West Virginia completes the sweep of the Bears.

West Virginia will be back in action Wednesday night in the second edition of the Backyard Brawl, with the first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. at Monongalia County Ballpark.

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