WVU advances to Super Regionals
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the third consecutive season, the West Virginia University baseball team advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals as the Mountaineers defeated Kentucky, 6-5, in 10 innings, Monday evening at Kendrick Family Ballpark to win the Morgantown Regional.
Junior Armani Guzman hit the walk-off single to score graduate student Brodie Kresser for the game-winning run. In the regional, Guzman hit .455 with four doubles and seven RBI. Sophomore Gavin Kelly was named the Tournament MVP after hitting .400 with three home runs, including one on Monday, and had eight RBI in five games.
The Mountaineers will remain at home for the Super Regionals and will face Cal Poly. Dates, sites, times and broadcast information for the Super Regionals will be released via press release and social media approximately 10 am ET, Tuesday.
“It was just truly a beautiful week of baseball, and getting to spend more time with these
kids is always the goal,” said head coach Steve Sabins. “You’re trying to stay alive to spend another day with these guys. There’s too many individual performances to concentrate. You could obviously ask me about those individuals, but the story lines are insane. I think it’s been cemented that this is the best college baseball atmosphere in the country.”
Guzman finished Monday’s game with three hits while Kelly had two hits and scored three runs. Senior Paul Schoenfeld had two hits and two RBI while senior Matthew Graveline collected a pair of hits, a walk, and an RBI.
On the mound, redshirt junior Maxx Yehl bounced back after a rough start on Saturday with 5.0 innings on Monday, allowing one run while striking out six and walking none. Sophomore Chansen Cole tossed 1.2 scoreless innings in relief with two strikeouts while junior Dawson Montesa earned the win with 0.2 innings and a strikeout.
West Virginia took the lead in the first as a dropped third strike allowed Kelly to score from third. In the bottom of the third, Guzman manufactured a run by bunting for a hit, stealing second, advancing to third on a groundout to third, and then scoring on a grounder by Schoenfeld with the infield in.
In the fourth, Hudson Brown hit a solo home run for the Wildcats to get them on the board.
The Mountaineers added two runs in the fifth inning as Schoenfeld had an RBI single before Graveline doubled home a run to push the WVU lead to 5-1.
Graduate student Ian Korn came on to pitch in the sixth and tossed two scoreless innings before Kentucky rallied for four runs in the eighth. With two outs, the Wildcats hit back-to-back singles before Brown and Ethan Hindle hit back-to-back home runs to tie the game.
Cole stranded a runner on second in the ninth inning before Montesa came onto pitch in the middle of the 10th and stranded a pair of runners to keep the game tied.
In the bottom of the 10th, graduate student Brodie Kresser led off with a single before senior Ben Lumsden walked. After a failed sacrifice bunt attempt, Guzman came up and line a 2-0 pitch to center field. The ball sank fast in front of the diving center fielder, but he came up short and with Kresser making the correct read, he scored easily to send the Mountaineers to the Super Regionals.
Kelly, Guzman, Lumsden, Cole, Montesa, and junior Tyrus Hall were named to the All-Tournament Team.
Super Regional ticket and parking requests that were submitted by the May 24 deadline will be allocated in the coming days. Fans will be notified by Wednesday afternoon if their Super Regional ticket request was fulfilled. Seat locations may differ from regular season ticket or regional allocations.
Student ticket info will be released in the coming days. General public ticket and parking info will be announced Wednesday afternoon pending availability
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
