The West Virginia University baseball team fell 11-4 against Arizona at Kendrick Family Ballpark, dropping their first full Big 12 series of the season. Read more WVU baseball collapses in eighth inning to drop series to Arizona.
It was a close game throughout, but The Wildcats (18-5, 5-2 Big 12) used a big eighth inning to take the series from WVU (19-3, 2-2 Big 12).
Back and Forth
Arizona took the lead with a solo homer in the top of the second, before tripling their lead with a two-run homer in the top of the third.
The Mountaineers fought back in the bottom of the third as junior second baseman Sam White homered to right field to drive in freshman catcher Gavin Kelly.
WVU then took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning as senior right fielder Jace Rinehart doubled to right field to plate sophomore second baseman Armani Guzman and senior first baseman Grant Hussey.
Disaster in the Eighth
Disaster struck for West Virginia in the top of the eighth, as Arizona hit a two-run homer to right center to take the lead. A few batters later, a passed ball and RBI double plated three more runs, and after another RBI double WVU found themselves down 9-4. And in the ninth inning, a home run to left center made it an 11-4 game, putting away the Mountaineers.
Sabins
In the post-game press conference, head coach Steve Sabins said that junior starting catcher Logan Sauve, who missed today’s game with shoulder MRI Monday and that the severity is unknown, saying “we’re hopeful he can get back rather quickly”.
In addition, Sabins stated that starting second baseman and third-string catcher Sam White was “undergoing tests right now for his shoulder, and we’ll know more tomorrow”.
READ: WVU RECOVERS AS BASSINGER EXCELS IN WIN OVER ARIZONA
As freshman Gavin Kelly was the only catcher left, Sabins was asked who would serve as his backup, and revealed Rinehart would fill in if needed, stating “Rinehart caught, he was a catcher in high school, Rinehart has caught a lot in his career when he was coming to prospect camps back in the day, junior and senior year in high school he was showing up as a catcher, so he’s got a chance back there”. In three seasons at USC Upstate, Rinehart played 42 games at catcher.
Sabins was also asked why he left righty Tyler Hutson in during the eighth inning to face star AU lefty Mason White, Sabins said that they believed it was a good matchup and Hutson is somebody they want pitching in these kinds of situations.
“Our scouting report off of that particular hitter is that we thought we could elevate the fastball, Tyler Hutson has really good ride on his heater it’s a lower velocity but his fast ball plays up in the zone, and then he’s actually a five pitch mix guy so he’s got splitter, changeup, slider curveball and we thought that that change up mix with that particular hitter under the zone would be a really good matchup, we had some other options in the bullpen as well, at this point in the series more unproven freshman guys, some of them have better velocity or stuff than Tyler Hutson but Hutson’s a senior, trusted, and usually late in the games with series on the line, it always comes down to who do you trust with the ball the most and he certainly earned that I think a sub-one ERA, pitched a ton in college, loves a big moment so we got beat by their three hole, great player, good hitter, with juice, had a really nice swing and beat us.”
Offensive Anemia
It was not WVU’s day offensively, as they hit 9-35 as a team with only two extra base hits, walking five times. Rinehart did the most damage, going 2-4 with two RBI, a double and a walk. White also drove in two runs with his homer, but was removed due to injury. The Mountaineers also left nine runners stranded throughout the game.
A lot of pitchers got into the game, as West Virginia used a staggering nine pitchers. Junior right-handed pitcher Carson Estridge started, and pitched five innings giving up three runs on four hits and two walks while striking out six batters. After that the bullpen floundered, as the next eight pitchers gave up six runs on eight hits over the next four innings. Overall WVU’s pitching line was nine innings, 12 hits, 11 runs (nine earned) along with three walks and 11 strikeouts.
Arizona moves into second place in the Big 12, just half a game behind leaders Kansas State (15-7, 5-0). West Virginia is now in eighth place in the conference.
Next up, West Virginia faces Marshall on Tuesday at Kendrick Family Ballpark at 6:30 p.m. Marshall is 12-11 and 2-3 in the Sun Belt this season, highlighted by a 4-2 win at Georgia Tech on Feb. 22. WVU is 56-26 all-time against Marshall, having gone 2-1 against them last season.
