West Virginia Stumbles in Game One of the Central Virginia Challenge to VCU

Mountaineers rallies late but falls to VCU, 4-1

Richmond, VA – The West Virginia Mountaineers dropped the first game of the Central Virginia Challenge to Virginia Commonwealth University 4-1 Friday evening.

West Virginia applied pressure in the first after Austin Davis tabbed a one-out single and Tyler Doanes reached on an error by second baseman Paul Witt also allowing Davis to advance to third. Doanes stole second but the Mountaineers left both runners stranded in scoring position.

Mountaineer starting pitcher Jackson Wolfe pitched five hitless innings striking out four, but in the sixth, Paul Witt broke the no-hitter with a single into left field and Tyler Locklear singled into right-center putting runners at the corners. Then, Liam Hibbits smacked an RBI double into left field to break the scoreless tie with Locklear standing at third.

That ended the day for Wolfe pitching 5.1 innings, four strikeouts three hits and three runs as West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey turned the game over to Skylar Gonzalez.

Gonzalez retired cleanup hitter Brandon Henson to get the second out of the inning, then Mazey opted to intentionally walk Hogan Brown to load the bases. Steven Carpenter made the most of the opportunity and hit a hard ground ball back up the middle that just got past the outreached glove of a diving Tevin Tucker as two more runs crossed the plate.

VCU head coach Shawn Stiffler sent in Logan Amiss to pinch hit for Jack Schroeder, who was 0-2 on the day, and Amiss delivered with a single up the middle just off the second base side to tack on the fourth run in the bottom of the sixth for the 4-0 lead.

West Virginia put runners aboard in the seventh but again came away empty handed. 

However, in a last-ditch effort in the top of the ninth got the Mountaineers on the board following a one out single from Ryan Archibald and advanced to second after Vince Ippoliti was hit by a pitch. That brought up Tyler Martino to the plate and he flared an RBI single into left field and the tying run was at the plate.

However, Danny Watson closed out the game striking out Dominic Ragazzo, completing the save and marking the third consecutive loss for the Mountaineers.

West Virginia will play game two of the Central Virginia Challenge against William & Mary with the first pitch set for 2:00 pm at Plumeri Park.