West Virginia went into the series finale on Sunday afternoon having already won their third straight Big 12 series, and were looking for their second straight Big 12 series sweep. The WVU offense was active early and often throughout the game to complete the sweep with a 18-4 victory.
West Virginia’s bullpen did the bulk of the pitching to keep the Bears at bay, with freshman starter Robby Porco only lasting 1.1 innings. Max Yehl, Grant Siegel, David Hagaman and Gavin Van Kempen combined to go 7.2 innings, allowing only two runs, both off of Yehl in his two innings of work.
Tevin Tucker was on base four times for the second game in a row, this time through four hits, including a double. The Mountaineers also hit four home runs, from JJ Wetherholt, Landon Wallace, Dayne Leonard and Nick Barone. Wetherholt’s home run was his 11th of the season, tying Grant Hussey for the team lead in home runs. Barone’s home run was the second of the freshman’s season, in only eight at-bats this year.
The West Virginia offense went to work early, scoring three runs in the first inning on a Dayne Leonard two RBI single, followed by a Caleb McNeely sacrifice fly to tack on another run.
Porcello set the Bears down in order in the bottom of the first, but ran into trouble in the second. Porcello loaded the bases with no outs, but got an out on a ground ball that allowed a runner to score. He walked the next hitter to reload the bases for the Bears and that was the end of his day. Yehl induced a ground ball to potentially get out of the inning with a double play, but the Mountaineers were unable to turn it and settled for one out with a run crossing home. Yehl got out of the jam with no further damage with a strikeout and WVU led 3-2 after two innings.
West Virginia added two runs in the third inning on Dayne Leonard’s fourth home run of the season, a two run shot to center field and the Mountaineers were back up three runs after three innings.
Baylor was not going away though, adding two runs of their own in the fourth inning, on a sacrifice fly by Daniel Altman and an RBI single by Hunter Teplanszky to cut WVU’s lead to 5-4.
JJ Wetherholt and Landon Wallace sent back to back balls over the center field wall in the top of the fifth with one out to score two more runs for WVU, and once again put the Mountaineers back up three.
The sixth inning was the first scoreless inning of the game by both teams, but West Virginia would add another insurance run in the seventh on a sacrifice bunt by Braden Barry with two men on that led to a throwing error allowing Wetherholt to score.
WVU put the game to bed in the eighth inning, scoring five runs on seven hits and sending 10 hitters to the plate in the inning, Wetherholt hit an RBI single, Evan Smith hit a two RBI, three run single and Hussey added another RBI single to increase WVU’s lead to 13-4.
The Mountaineers weren’t done scoring yet though, loading the bases in the ninth, with Evan Smith walking to score another run. Nick Barone cleared the bases with a grand slam, the first of the Freshman’s career to score five runs for the second consecutive inning.
Van Kampen set the Bears down in order in the bottom of the ninth to secure the victory and the series sweep for WVU.
West Virginia will return home for their next game, the second iteration of the Backyard Brawl this season on Wednesday with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. at Wagener Field.
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