West Virginia hit three home runs as they beat Cincinnati 6-4 on Friday, earning the series win.
WVU homered three times in two innings as they took the series from the Bearcats and won their 13th game in a row.
West Virginia got on the board in the first inning for the second game in a row. Similar to Friday night, Kyle West got on base, advancing to second and third on separate wild pitches. Jace Rinehart then drove him in to put the Mountaineers on the board, giving them a 1-0 lead.
Cincinnati didn’t score until the fourth inning, but they were able to cause havoc for WVU starter Gavin Van Kempen.
Van Kempen allowed runners to reach in the second and third innings, before the Bearcats tied the game in the fourth on a leadoff home run from Jack Natili.
WVU tied the game in the bottom of the inning as Chase Swain hit a sac-fly to score Rinehart as WVU led 2-1. West Virginia then added to their lead in the fifth as Logan Sauve hit his sixth home run of the season, a 420-foot blast to put the Mountaineers ahead 3-1.
Reese Bassinger came into the game in the fifth with two runners on and no outs, and was able to get out of the inning. In the sixth it was a similar story as UC put two on with one out, but he got two strikeouts to end the inning.
WVU’s offense rewarded his effort in the bottom of the inning as Rinehart recorded his third hit of the game, a solo home run to start the inning. The Mountaineers added two more runs in the inning as Grant Hussey got in on the home run party, hitting a two-run homer, putting WVU ahead 6-1.
Bassinger ran into more trouble in the seventh, allowing a run in the process, but maintained the lead for WVU.
Bassinger stayed in the game, as he ended up going 4.0 total innings on the night, before getting pulled in the ninth as the Bearcats added a run.
In came Carson Estridge with a runner on third and no outs with WVU clinging to a 6-3 lead. One more run scored as Estridge recorded three straight outs to close the win for the Mountaineers.
WVU will look to sweep the series on Saturday as they face Cincinnati in game three of the series.
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