West Virginia Rolls Richmond

Richmond, VA – The West Virginia Mountaineers (7-4) racked up 17 hits cruising to a 13-1 win over the Richmond Spiders Sunday afternoon.

Lead off hitter Braden Zarbnisky began the game with a base hit up the middle and Austin Davis followed ripping a single through the left side and Tyler Doanes hit the same hole to score Zarbnisky from second for the game’s first run.

Kevin Brophy brought in Davis long drive into the gap in left-center that one-hopped off the wall for a double, but Tyler Doanes got caught halfway to home and ended getting tagged at third.

Then with two outs and on an 0-2 count, Paul McIntosh drilled a two-RBI home run over the left field wall for a four-run first inning for the Mountaineers.

West Virginia freshman left-handed starting pitcher Jake Carr only gave up three hits and one run on the in six innings pitched and they all came in the first three batters he faced.

Jordan Schulefand, Alden Mathes, and Dominic Toso hit three consecutive singles to start the bottom of the first for the Spiders only run of the game. The Mountaineers got out of the inning with Austin Davis charging a short fly ball for the first out and was able to hold the runner at third and a 4-6-3 double play ended the inning.

Carr struck out three and only walked one on the day.

Austin Davis poked a base hit into center field to begin the third inning and proceeded to steal second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and crossed home plate on a balk to push West Virginia's lead to four.

Paul McIntosh worked a lead off walk and Matt McCormick ripped a stand-up double into right field to begin the fourth inning.

Tevin Tucker hit a sacrifice ground ball to score McCormick before Zarbnisky worked a walk, then stole second to set up a two-RBI line drive single from Davis and he took second base after the throw at home on Zarbnisky got past Richmond catcher Zach Lass.

On the next pitch, Davis stole third and Tyler Doanes drove him in on a line drive into left-center to cap off a four-run fourth inning and break the game open with a 9-1 lead.

West Virginia added two more in the seventh when Kevin Brophy singled back up the middle, followed up by a deep fly ball from Paul McIntosh over the head of centerfielder Johnny Hipsman for a double and McCormick found the gap in left-center for an RBI single to finish the inning.

In the ninth, Matt McCormick hammered a two-run home run over the right field wall to extend the Mountaineers to a 13-1 win as Jake Carr moves to 2-1 on the season. Jacob Watters and Madison Jeffrey combined for two scoreless innings and Braden Zarbnisky took the hill in the bottom of the ninth and retired the side.

The Mountaineers are back in action on Wednesday as they host Kent State at 4:00 pm inside Monongalia County Ballpark.