The ball jumped off the bats for West Virginia in their 7-5 win Saturday over No. 17 UCF.
They hit three home runs and picked up seven hits in total, including JJ Wetherholt’s first HR of the season.
Derek Clark got the start for WVU and tossed a complete game allowing five runs, four earned, on six hits and two walks. He picked up 10 strikeouts in the victory.
In the top of the third, UCF would strike first having men on second and third with two outs. One would score on a wild pitch and the other on an RBI double, to make it a 2-0 ball game.
In the bottom of the third, the bases were loaded for the Mountaineers with no outs, but they only managed to score one run on an RBI groundout.
Clark gave up his first home run of the season in the top of the fourth to give UCF a 3-1 lead. West Virginia scored a run in the bottom half of the inning to make it 3-2.
Wetherholt hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game at three, but just two batters later the Mountaineers would take the lead with a Reed Chumley HR.
WVU added to their lead in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two runs. Skylar King drove in the first on a single and Wetherholt brought in the second on a sacrifice fly.
UCF would get a run back on another homer off of Clark in the top of the seventh making it 6-4. Sam White would join the home run party in the bottom of the seventh giving West Virginia that run right back.
Clark stayed in for the ninth as he looked to pitch another complete game. He walked the leadoff batter and the second batter would reach on a fielder’s choice and error, leaving two men on with no outs. However, Clark got right back on track getting the next batter to pop out and striking out the one afterward. Down to their last strike and out, UCF got an RBI single to pull them within two. The next batter would ground out to short giving the Mountaineers a 7-5 win.
West Virginia improves to 21-13 on the season (10-4 in Big 12), while No. 17 UCF drops to 21-11 (8-9 in Big 12). The final game of the series will have a noon EST first-pitch start time on Thursday as WVU looks for the sweep.
Photo by Tyler Prussina
