The Mountaineers got off to a hot start in Houston as they rolled over the Cougars, 9-2. WVU was in control of the game from the second inning forward and only allowed two runs near the end of Griffin Kirn’s outing. Tomorrow’s game will be at 7:30 p.m. in Schroeder Park in Houston, Texas. Read more: top of lineup shines as WVU wins opener over Houston.
West Virginia improves to 28-4 on the season and 8-3 in the Big 12. They are now first in the conference, with a slight lead over Kansas and TCU, who are both 9-4 in the conference. That is the Mountaineers’ sixth consecutive victory, and they will look to keep things rolling on Saturday in the second game of the series.
Recap
The first inning featured a strikeout and two flyouts for Griffin Kirn as he got off to a hot start. Third baseman Chase Swain started the scoring in the second inning on a single that scored shortstop Brodie Kresser from third after he advanced on a wild pitch. That was Swain’s first of three RBIs in the game and the first of Kresser’s two runs.
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Eventually, WVU broke things open in the fourth inning when they took a 5-1 lead. Swain tripled to right center and scored first baseman Grant Hussey from second. That was followed by a fielding error, which allowed Swain to score an unearned run. Kendall Hoffman entered the game to pitch for the Cougars with the bases juiced and walked in a run against his first batter. Jace Rinehart singled to score the final run of the inning. Logan Sauve was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second.
Kirn gave up the first run of the game in the bottom half of the inning. He allowed two doubles to Aaron Lugo and Kenneth Jimenez. WVU scored on a Chase Swain sacrifice fly in the top half of the fifth inning. It gave them a 6-1 lead. Kirn gave up a home run to Cade Climie with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Kyle West had a one-run single down the right field line after back-to-back hits from Skylar King and Logan Sauve to start the sixth inning. Griffin Kirn finished his outing by forcing two groundouts and one strikeout in the bottom half of the sixth.
Reese Bassinger came in for his fifth save of the season in the seventh inning and pitched three shutout innings with two strikeouts. WVU scored two more runs in the eighth inning to make it 9-2. Sauve singled through the right side, and both runners advanced on a fielding error, allowing King to score. Second baseman Gavin Kelly singled up the middle to score Sauve from third after a sacrifice bunt from Armani Guzman.
Takeaways
Griffin Kirn and Reese Bassinger did all the heavy lifting in this game, which conserves arms moving into the final two games of the series. Kirn allowed five hits and one walk, with five strikeouts, allowing two runs. Bassinger fanned two and had three shutout innings. Kirn’s quality start should provide the Mountaineers ample arms to finish the series. The bats stayed hot as well, with 15 hits and only five strikeouts. The team left seven on base, but they scored nine runs. It was plenty, thanks to a great outing from Kirn and Bassinger. Undoubtedly the stars of the game, King and Suave both had three hits and scored four combined runs as the first two batters in the lineup.
