West Virginia's Quick Start Completes Series Sweep over Baylor

The Mountaineers jumped out to a big lead and held off the Bears for the series sweep

The West Virginia Mountaineers (20-10, 5-1) completed a three-game series sweep over the Baylor Bears (16-15, 2-7) with a 7-5 victory Sunday afternoon. The 3-0 series win marks the first sweep over a Big 12 opponents since the Mountaineers swept the Texas Longhorns in 2016. 

"It's so hard to win a series let alone sweep a series but you can put some of that on the crowd today," said West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey. The crowd was into it, energetic and getting excited when we were getting out of innings."

Austin Davis extended his hit streak six with a leadoff single in the bottom of the first inning followed by a base hit from J.J. Wetherhold sparked a four run fourth with Tevin Tucker laying down a bunt, advancing the runners in scoring position and setting up an RBI single from McGwire Holbrook, Braden Barry ripped an RBI double down the left field line and Dayne Leonard's two-RBI single capped a four run first inning. 

Austin Davis continued the momentum in the second with a one-out double and Victor Scott scored Davis with a base hit, then stole second before Holbrook delivered his second RBI of the day with a single through the right side. 

"We said going into it, 'after you win the first two games the way to win game three, which is the hardest game to win after you win the first two, is to come out with aggression and energy and grab the lead. Usually, if you grab a lead in game three when you’re going for a sweep the other team kind of loses some energy', and I think they did but we kind of let them back in it."

A tight strike zone and discipline at the plate paid off for the Bears in the fourth. After facing the minimum through three, Mountaineer hurler Zach Bravo threw four straight balls to begin the fourth. Then, despite starting ahead of the count 1-2, walked Tre Richardson before recording the innings first out with a sacrifice fly ball but it advanced the runners to second and third. Bravo, again, started the count 1-2 but walked the bases loaded.

Chase Wehsener put the ball into play, bringing in the first run for the Bears on a fielder's choice with West Virginia narrowly ending the inning on a 5-4-3 double play. Nonetheless, Bravo walked the bases loaded before hitting Cam Caley to bring in the second run. Mazey called out to the bullpen for Noah Short. And on the second pitch, he pelted to score another run. Then, Alex Gonzalez seized the opportunity with a hard line drive into left field for a pair of RBIs to get the Bears within a run, 5-6. Short got out of the inning on a strikeout. 

Reliever Chris Sleeper took the mound in the fifth, allowing just two hits in his first two innings before facing the minimum in the seventh and eighth. 

Austin Davis provided a little cushion in the sixth with a towering leadoff solo home run over the highest part of the left field wall, extending the lead, 7-5. 

Trey Braithwaite recorded his third save of the season, after turning a 1-6-3 double play and forcing Jack Pineda into a ground ball over to second for the game's final out as West Virginia takes the 7-5 decision. 

"Two of these wins were courtesy of our bullpen. Chris Sleeper pitched really well today. Carlson Reed and Noah the other day, and Braithwaite was really good," said Mazey. "That was our worry when we move Jake Watters to the starting role, were we going to have enough guys back there to finish games and they’ve done really good so far. 

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