West Virginia's 9-6 win over Clemson was anything but easy, fueled by the trust the Mountaineers have for each other.
For the second day in a row, WVU mounted a late-game comeback, scoring one run in the eighth and four in the ninth, taking down No. 11 national seed Clemson and advancing to the Clemson Regional Final.
"Special team win for the Mountaineers. The last two days have been incredibly exciting. We had a walk-off win, and then this was about as tight as a game on the road as you can against a regional host," WVU head coach Steve Sabins said.
The Mountaineers were down but never out of this one. A 4-0 lead turned into a 5-4 deficit in the sixth and seventh innings, before a pair of two-out doubles by Armani Guzman in the eighth and Sam White in the ninth tied and then took the lead for West Virginia.
"We had so many great individual performances, so many people coming together to make that game possible. Started off really great on offense. We ended up trailing in the game by the seventh inning, and then came back and put together a really nice ninth inning. But everybody just stayed connected. Everybody worked really hard together. We had so many, like I said, just great individual performances. And we were able to hand the ball to the next guy, and people came up huge," Sabins said.
White's double started a fury of runs for the Mountaineers. The next three batters all singled after White, before a pair of hit-by-pitches gave WVU a 9-5 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth.
"Just trying to keep it simple, see ball, hit ball, honestly. Those are the kind of opportunities you look for as a player. Best on best stuff, and just trying to go out and win each pitch," White said of his approach.
The game was far from secured, though, as in the bottom of the ninth, Clemson mounted their own two-out rally.
Chase Meyer came into the game in the seventh inning with one out and the bases loaded. He would get out of the jam without allowing any futher damage, inducing a double play to end the threat.
He would stay in, tossing a perfect eighth inning, before getting two quick outs in the ninth inning. He was then a strike away, but Clemson's Cam Cannarella kept the Tigers alive.
Eventually, Meyer walked home a run and would go down 2-0 to Jack Crighton, who served as the potential game-winning run.
Sabins made a move, going to get Meyer, and gave the ball to Ben McDougal with the game on the line.
"No matter what, it's just a pitch at the end of the day, and I'm going to keep and bring the same intensity every single pitch, no matter if it's the first pitch of the game or the last one. But at the end there, I just kind of lost my edge and tried to place a ball when the whole time I was just throwing it as hard as I could, and it was going down the middle," Meyer said.
McDougal would finish the game by striking out Crighton, needing just four pitches to do so, sending the Mountaineers to the Clemson Regional Final, needing just one more win to get to the Super Regionals.
"I think a good thing about this group is, no matter what, we all want to do well for each other. I came in bases loaded, and I know that if I give up a hit, not only does the momentum shift, but I also just gave up some runs for my teammate, who's back I'm supposed to have. So, [McDougal] coming in, trust [Sabins] completely, and he's going to make the decision that's going to help us to win, and he got the job done," Meyer said.
West Virginia is now one win away from winning the Clemson Regional, as they face the winner of Kentucky vs. Clemson in the Regional Final on Sunday night at 6:00 p.m.
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