Mountaineers win game one of super regionals
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 16 West Virginia University baseball team defeated Cal Poly, 12-2, Friday afternoon at Kendrick Family Ballpark in the NCAA Super Regionals and are now one win away from its first College World Series berth in program history.
The Mountaineers improve to 44-15, matching last season’s program record for wins in a season, while the Mustangs fall to 39-23. Game two will take place on Saturday with first pitch at noon and will air on ESPN2.
Sophomore Chansen Cole was spectacular on the mound as he went 7.0 innings with a season-high 11 strikeouts. He allowed just two runs while scattering eight hits and walking none on 121 pitches.
Junior Tyrus Hall hit a grand slam and finished the day with five RBI while graduate student Sean Smith went 3-for-4 with a home run, three RBI, and three runs scored. Graduate student Brodie Kresser and senior Ben Lumsden each finished the day with two RBI.
Junior Armani Guzman got the Mountaineers off to a fast start with a leadoff double on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first inning. After a walk to senior Paul Schoenfeld, Smith jumpstarted the scoring with a three-run home run, his ninth of the season.
Cal Poly hit a solo home run in the fourth, but the Mountaineers responded with five runs in the home half. Kresser had an RBI single before Hall had the biggest hit of the game, an opposite-field grand slam into the West Virginia bullpen.
After the Mustangs put a run on the board in the seventh, WVU once again answered in the bottom of the inning, this time with three runs. Lumsden had a two-run double before Hall hit a sacrifice fly. A bases-loaded walk in the eighth capped the scoring for the Mountaineers in the game.
Graduate student Reese Bassinger tossed a scoreless inning in the eighth before senior Carson Estridge needed just 11 pitches in a 1-2-3 ninth inning to close out the game.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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