West Virginia looked to continue their momentum they built from a Sunday win ahead of a pivotal Big 12 road series. However, the West Virginia bullpen gave up seven runs in the sixth inning, as the Mountaineers lost the road mid-week matchup to Penn State, 11-6 on Tuesday.
Everything was going right until it wasn’t for the Mountaineers against the Nittany Lions. West Virginia grabbed an early lead in the first inning, and held that throughout the entire first five innings. It would be the sixth inning which would be killer though for the Mountaineers. Trailing 6-1 in the home half of the sixth, Penn State sent 10 batters to the plate as the bullpen struggled and the West Virginia defense didn’t help in the effort either.
Head coach Randy Mazey turned to sophomore Keegan Allen. Allen was pulled after just three batters as he had loaded the bases allowing single, before hitting the second batter, and walking the third. Noah Short was brought on to clean up the damage, but Grant Norris got ahead in the count and hit a two-run double off of Short.
Short struck out the next batter he faced for the first out of the inning, before he also hit a Penn State hitter. Mazey then went to a new arm, this time to freshman Cole Fehrman. Fehrman walked in a run, and that would be the only batter he faced. Mazey then turned to David Hagaman, when things unravelled even more for the Mountaineers.
With the bases loaded, Hagaman got Kyle Cannon would single on a groundball between the Hagaman and first base. He would attempt to throw it, but the ball sailed over the head of Grant Hussey. Caleb McNeely in right field then tried to throw home to get the original runner who was at first base, but the ball went to the backstop and ricocheted into the field of play. There was then no one to pick up the ball, as Cannon came all the way around the bases to score, while also clearing the bases in the process.
Penn State added on in the seventh scoring three more runs, as the West Virginia offense had just two hits over the final five innings.
West Virginia was led offensively by Tevin Tucker who had three hits, including a double and a run scored.
Bigger Picture
No loss is good, but certainly not when your team is somewhat reeling. Losing a home series to Kansas, and traveling to face No. 18 Oklahoma State this weekend shows a tough road ahead for West Virginia. The Mountaineers came into Tuesday’s contest ranked 43rd in RPI, while Penn State ranked 150th. This type of loss could be somewhat problematic come the end of May.
Photo from @WVUBaseball Twitter
