Thursday night being a pitcher’s duel between Griffin Kirn for WVU and Nathan Taylor for UC did not come as much of a surprise. Both pitchers entered the game top ten in the Big 12 in ERA, and they proved their quality throughout the game.
However, West Virginia’s lineup was able to land the final blow in the battle, as a double from Jace Rinehart in the sixth inning scored Kyle West from first base and was enough to push West Virginia to a 3-2 win over Cincinnati, extending their winning streak to 12 games.
Over his last two starts entering Thursday, Kirn tossed 12.2 innings and gave up five runs while striking out 19. Over Taylor’s last two starts, 10.0 innings pitched, 11 runs, six strikeouts, but it was certainly not that version of Taylor who took the mound in game one of the three-game series.
Kirn was spotless through the first two innings, while Taylor overcame an early hiccup in the first. The Mountaineers took a 1-0 lead on a single from Rinehart, scoring West, who had reached on a dropped third strike, before advancing to second on a wild pitch.
The Bearcats answered back in the third, as their first baserunner of the game came on a single from Lauden Brooks to start the inning. With the bases loaded, Donovan Ford plated two on a single, giving Cincinnati a 2-1 lead.
West Virginia added to their tally in the bottom of the inning, as Spencer Barnett singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and then eventually scored on a wild pitch as the Mountaineers tied the game at 2-2.
From that point on, offense would be at a premium for both sides.
Between the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, both teams combined for three hits, while West Virginia made the most of their opportunity in the sixth.
West was down 0-2 in the count with two outs, before he walked, and then Rinehart’s double went down the left field line, as West slid in safely at home, just beating out the relay throw home as WVU took a 3-2 lead.
This came after the Bearcats had runners on the corners with no outs, before the Mountaineers erased a run at the plate. Kirn’s night ended after he hit a batter to load the bases with two outs.
WVU turned to Chase Meyer, who needed three pitches to get out of the jam, getting a strikeout to end the inning and let out a roar in the process.
Meyer stayed on to pitch a scoreless seventh but ran into trouble in the eighth.
He walked two batters to put runners on with one out, and he then started a 1-4-3 double play to end the inning, keeping WVU’s lead intact.
West Virginia tried to add to their lead in the eighth, loading the bases with one out, but the inning ended without them getting a run home.
The Bearcats got a single in the ninth off Meyer to start the inning, stealing second, and then advancing to third on a bunt. Meyer would get a strikeout, recording the second out in the inning, before he started the next batter 0-2, before he threw two straight balls, which called for a mound visit from the Mountaineers' coaching staff.
Meyer would get the strikeout, but the ball bounced away from WVU catcher Logan Sauve, allowing the runner to score. The Mountaineers claimed the ball hit the UC batter, which would've ended the game, as the call was reviewed.
The umpires claimed the ball hit the batter, therefore earning the strikeout and getting the win for the Mountaineers.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
