West Virginia's Griffin Kirn gave his team everything he had. His ability to keep WVU in the game ended up paying off as a comeback win was sparked by Kirn's strong start.
It looked as though it might be a long afternoon for Kirn as it took 10 pitches to get through the first batter of the game, ending in a walk, and then on his 11th pitch, he hit a batter.
Kirn escaped a bases-loaded jam before he would make quick work of the Wildcats in the second and third innings.
"It's just, I mean, get a zero. It doesn't really matter who's on base. It doesn't matter what happens. If you get a zero at the end of the day, you're probably going to stay in the game. I kept telling [Steve Sabins] and [Chris Reilly] and [Justin] Oney, just, like, trust me. They do trust me, and it's just, like, getting zeros at the end of the day," Kirn said.
Kirn was put in a tough spot before the game, as the game was delayed by 2 hours and 41 minutes from its original 12:00 p.m. start time.
"I was pretty focused, ready to go, like 30, 35 minutes before the game, and they told me they were going to meet at 1:30, and I was like, all right, I need to kind of like unlock it, I guess, in a sense. Like just kind of have fun with the guys and, you know, mess around, and then whenever they met at 1.30, I kind of got back in the groove, and it was just like, all right, it's go time now," Kirn said.
Kirn finished the game throwing 118 pitches, the fourth time in his last five starts that he's thrown at least 113 pitches.
"Just really, really proud of the effort from the team and the staff. Griffin Kirn has been an absolute workhorse for the Mountaineers all season. He got better from pitch 100 to 117," head coach Steve Sabins said.
West Virginia is now 11-4 in games Kirn started this year, with this being the biggest win out of the 11 wins.
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