A Reed Chumley walk-off homer in the bottom of the 11th would be the decider in an 11-10 Mountaineer win over No. 17 UCF on Sunday, completing their sweep of the Knights over the weekend.
West Virginia struggled to get length from their pitchers with the Knights scoring nine runs in the first three innings. The Mountaineers used eight different pitchers and got the most out of Hambelton Oliver, who pitched 3.2 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and a walk, while striking out five and Gavin Van Kempen who closed it out for WVU, also pitched 3.2 scoreless innings, allowing just one baserunner and struck out four.
Andrew Williamson drove in four runs for the Knights and Braden Caliese three, while Dylan King went 3-for-5 with three doubles.
Offensively for WVU, JJ Wetherholt went 2-for-3 with a double, home run and two RBIs, he walked twice and was hit by a pitch once. Logan Sauve went 2-for-6 picking up a single, double and three RBIs. Kyle West hit a home run and picked up two RBIs and Chumley went 2-for-4 with the walk-off blast.
UCF got out to an early lead, scoring in the first inning after WVU starter Robby Porco walked the first two batters. An RBI double down the left field line by Lex Boedicker put the Mountaineers behind 1-0. Porco walked another batter and was taken out of the game before he could finish the first inning.
Hayden Cooper came on in, in relief and allowed a bases-clearing double to Williamson, who was thrown out trying for three, getting West Virginia out of the inning, but the damage was already done as the Knights scored four in the top of the first.
In the bottom of the first, Wetherholt hit a leadoff double and was driven in on a Sam White triple that nearly made it over the wall. Just a couple of batters later, West would send one over the fence to bring WVU within one 4-3.
After a leadoff double and a batter hit by pitch for UCF, the runner were advanced to second and third on a sac bunt, with the runner on third later scoring on an RBI groundout.
Greeting a new arm from the bullpen, Wetherholt homered on UCF reliever Dominic Castellano’s first pitch with a runner on to tie the game at five.
The Knights scored four more in the top of the third after they strung together four straight hits to begin the inning off of Tyler Switalski, who came on to pitch to in the third. Switalski wouldn’t make it out of the third as he was replaced by Oliver.
In the bottom of the sixth with two outs and the bases loaded, Sauve just missed a grand slam of the wall in left-center, but cleared the bases and got three runs back for the Mountaineers to bring them back within one.
It wasn’t until the eighth when UCF would score again. Joseph Fredericks walked in a run with the bases loaded against the only batter he faced, to give the Knights a 10-8 advantage.
In the bottom of the ninth, West Virginia had the bases loaded with one out as they looked to take control of the game late. UCF walked in two runs to tie the game at 10, but ultimately couldn’t walk it off in the bottom of the ninth as the game headed to extras.
After no scoring in the10th, the bottom of the 11th didn’t last for long as Chumley, the first batter of the inning called game.
West Virginia improves to 22-13 on the season (11-4 in Big 12), while No. 17 UCF drops to 21-12 (8-10 in Big 12). The Mountaineers will host Pitt on Tuesday in their next game action.
