West Virginia baseball entered this weekend having never made it past the regional round of the NCAA Tournament.
Three games later, WVU finished off a 3-0 weekend, capped off by a 10-6 win against Grand Canyon to advance to their first Super Regional appearance in school history, and clinching the Tucson Regional.
Over the past two days, the Mountaineers heavily relied upon their pitching staff to help get them to the regional final. Then on Sunday from Hi Corbett Field, WVU’s offense exploded for 17 hits and 10 runs, helping them clinch a historic victory.
It started early as Logan Sauve singled to get the party going for the Mountaineers. Sam White worked a walk, before both would advance to second and third base on a wild pitch. Reed Chumley then scored Sauve on a sacrifice-fly, before White scored on a single from Grant Hussey as WVU led 2-0 in the first.
West Virginia gave the ball to Hayden Cooper for the start on Sunday, but his outing would not last long. Cooper struggled as he gave up two runs and loaded the bases within the first five batters as he was taken out for Aidan Major.
Major, had been out of WVU’s rotation since early May, making his first appearance since May 5th. Major came in with the bases juiced and no outs and came out of it with GCU tallying only one more run as they took a 3-2 lead.
West Virginia’s offense picked up right where they left off, as back-to-back singles set up the middle of the WVU order as Sauve, White, and Chumley, all singled to score runs and WVU took a 5-2 lead. WVU added two more runs to their total in the third inning, as a double from Sauve plated two more runs, while on the flip side, Major began to settle in.
Major didn’t allow a hit in the second, third, or fourth innings, while WVU’s offense continued to roll.
Ben Lumsden singled to score a run in the fourth, while White singled and Hussey doubled, both to score runs in the fifth, as they led 10-3 after the top-half of the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, it looked like it could be a potential turning point for the Lopes to get back into the game.
Major gave up a walk, single, single, to start the inning, as GCU added a run. He then got a double play but hit a batter and walked a batter to load the bases. For the second time in as many days, Carson Estridge came into the game with the bases loaded. Last night it took him one pitch to get out of the jam, while tonight it took him six. He started out by throwing three straight balls, but came all the way back to strike out Emilio Barreras and keep WVU’s 10-4 lead intact.
Major finished his outing tossing 4.2 innings of one-run ball, striking out two, and walking five, but only surrendering two hits on 82 pitches. Estridge tossed 3.2 innings for WVU, while Maxx Yehl came in and it quickly went sideways. He gave up a two-run home run to Yorke, as WVU gave the ball to game one starter Derek Clark.
Clark gave up a single to put runners on first and second with one out. He got a strikeout to record the second out, and then struck out the final batter to send WVU on to the Super Regionals.
Estridge struck out the side in the sixth, before GCU was able to get traffic on the bases in the seventh. Zach Yorke led off the inning with a double, but the inning would end with Skylar King throwing Yorke out from left field trying to score.
The top of WVU's batting order was masterful in the 1-2 combination of JJ Wetherholt and Sauve. They went a combined 6-for-11 with five runs scored on Sunday evening.
WVU will face the winner of the Chapel Hill Regional, which will be the winner of the North Carolina and LSU game which takes place on Monday.
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