West Virginia rebounded in a big way to take game two over Texas Tech by a score of 17-2.
Pitcher Blaine Traxel (7-4) recorded the win for the Mountaineers, pitching eight innings with two earned runs and six strikeouts.
“They’re big, strong, power hitting guys, and Traxel’s throwing below the speed limit when it comes to hitting speed,” West Virginia skipper Randy Mazey said of Traxel. “They’re having trouble waiting on a changeup and they’re capping a lot of ground balls in the infield, and it just works to his advantage when they can’t wait on a ball.”
West Virginia (38-13, 14-6) took the lead in the first inning and never relinquished it as Braden Barry hit a sac fly to right field, which scored Tevin Tucker to make it 1-0 after one inning.
The Mountaineers would pour it on in the second inning, as Sam White hit a sac fly to score Grant Hussey, Logan Suave got on base on a fielder’s choice to score Caleb McNeely, and Braden Barry and Dayne Leonard walked with the bases loaded to score Logan Sauve and Tevin Tucker respectively. After two innings, West Virginia led Texas Tech 5-0.
Blaine Traxel pitched a 1-2-3 inning defensively in the third, then the Mountaineers got a triple RBI double from Landon Wallace to score JJ Wetherholt, Logan Sauve, and Sam White to make it 8-0 in the third.
Traxel once again pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, then West Virginia got runs when Logan Sauve got on base on a fielder’s choice to score Caleb McNeely and Dayne Leonard and when JJ Wetherholt hit an RBI single to right field to score Sauve to make it 11-0 after four.
Traxel pitched another 1-2-3 inning in the fifth, then the Mountaineers scored again when Braden Barry and Grant Hussey hit solo home runs to make it 13-0 after five innings.
Texas Tech (35-17, 10-10) finally got their first hit since the second inning when Nolen Hester hit a single to right field. They missed out on a scoring opportunity as Hester was left on third base to retire the side.
West Virginia didn’t score in an inning for the first time all game as the Red Raiders pitched a 1-2-3 inning to close out the sixth inning.
Texas Tech finally got on the board when Zac Vooletich hit a solo home run to left center to cut the deficit to 13-1. West Virginia responded with a Braden Barry RBI double to right field to score Landon Wallace and a Grant Hussey three-run home run to make it 17-1 after seven innings.
The Red Raiders added on a solo home run by Kevin Bazzell in the eighth inning to cut it to 17-2 but got no further as they only mustered a double by Taber Fast in the ninth to seal the win for the Mountaineers.
Game three of the series is set for Sunday with the first pitch at 1 p.m.
Discover more from Blue Gold Sports
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
