SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest in Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
West Virginia (2-2) earned its second win of the season Tuesday in walk-off fashion as the Mountaineers defeated Canisius (1-3), 5-4.
The Mountaineers and Golden Griffins battled in a back-and-forth contest that ended in the bottom of the ninth with a two-out, RBI single from Tristen Hudson.
Marques Inman and Ivan Gonzalez each hit a home run for West Virginia while junior left-hander Nick Snyder made his first career start and struck out six batters in 3.1 innings pitched with no earned runs.
Snyder retired Canisius in order to start things off in the first as he racked up two strikeouts. The game would remain scoreless following the first inning after West Virginia stranded runners at the corners.
Canisius managed to get two runners on base with a pair of singles that were mixed between two more strikeouts for Snyder during the top of the second. A pop out got Snyder and the Mountaineers out of the inning, but West Virginia would leave the bases loaded during the bottom half of the second inning after Darius Hill flew out to left field.
After the Golden Griffins stranded two more runners during the top of the third inning, West Virginia got on the board first with a solo homer to left field from Inman for his second of the season.
During the top of the fourth, Snyder surrendered a single and a walk before striking out his sixth batter of the game. He was then relieved by junior right-handed pitcher Dillon Meadows and the Mountaineers were able to get out of the inning with a fielder’s choice out at second base and a strikeout from Meadows.
West Virginia then extended its lead to 2-0 during the bottom half of the fourth with an RBI groundout from Hill, which scored Tevin Tucker from third base. Tucker was walked to start the inning, advanced to second after Brandon White was hit by a pitch and then went to third thanks to a sacrifice bunt from Tyler Doanes.
Canisius made it a one-run game with an RBI double from Mark McKenna which forced another pitching change for West Virginia. Right-handed pitcher Phillip Dull replaced Meadows on the mound and after bases were loaded, Gabe Kurtzhals replaced Dull on the mound and struck out his first batter of the game to end the inning.
A solo home run from Gonzalez extended West Virginia’s lead to 3-1, but the Golden Griffins responded with a two-run sixth inning to tie the game up thanks to RBI singles from Mike Steffan and Stephen Bennett.
After West Virginia was held scoreless during the bottom of the sixth inning and the game remained tied after seven innings as each team failed to scored during the seventh.
Freshman left-hander Beau Lowery pitched a second scoreless inning in the eighth to keep the game tied at 3-3. Tristen Hudson lined out to start the bottom of the eighth, but Austin Davis singled to put the winning run on base. He went on to steal second and then third base. A sacrifice bunt from Brandon White then gave West Virginia a 4-3 lead.
A lead-off triple from Bennett off Sam Kessler eventually led to Canisus tying the game after a wild pitch scored Bennett from third.
Despite getting a runner on second, Canisius was turned away after scoring the tying run. In the bottom of the ninth, Inman was walked and advanced to second after a single from Paul McIntosh. Hudson later singled to score the winning run in T.J. Lake from second who was pinch running for Inman.
The Mountaineers travel back to Georgia this weekend for a three-game series against Georgia Southern.
Enter the contest by clicking on the following link and choosing to subscribe to the channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=VideoGlide
