Granville, WV – The West Virgina Mountaineers (30-19, 16-10) crushed the Kansas State Wildcats (29-20, 13-13) Saturday night 13-0 to even the series at one.

West Virginia starting pitcher Derek Clark collected his sixth win of the season. The senior tossed seven scoreless innings and tied for a season-high 10 strikeouts.

He didn’t pitch great in Cincinnati and gave up some hits and he was pretty driven that he was going to prove to everybody that’s not him last weekend, and he had a great week of work,” said West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey. “He was really, really good.”

Kansas State redshirt sophomore starting pitcher Jackson Wentworth came into weekend ranked fifth in the Big 12 with 82 strikeouts. He had four strikeouts in 2.3 innings of work, then the Mountaineers started to find success.

West Virginia produced a three-run third inning and did the damage with two outs on the board. With the bases loaded, Sam White ripped the first pitch up the middle for a pair of RBIs and placed runners at the corners. White stole second base and on the throw, junior JJ Wetherholt broke for the plate and slid safely home for the 3-0 WVU lead.

Wetherholt added a run in the sixth with a solo home run over the batter’s eye in centerfield.

“We wanted him (Wentworth) to throw a lot of pitches because he’s just a converted starter and he hasn’t gotten deep into games much, so we wanted every guy to see four or five pitches their first time through, and we did that. We didn’t swing at many pitches below the zone and eventually it started coming up. When a pitcher realizes you’re not going to chase his stuff below the zone, then he has to throw strikes, and when he did, we worked ourselves into some pretty good hitter counts.

West Virginia broke the game open in the seventh, and again, the Mountaineers did the damage with two outs. With the bases loaded, Wetherholt hit a hard ground ball up the middle and it ricocheted off the glove of junior shortstop Kaelen Culpepper for an RBI single. Freshman Michael Perazza also scored on the play on a low throw from Culpepper at the plate. Then, White drilled the 2-2 pitch and placed it on top of the facilities building in right field for a three-run home run to cap off a five-run seventh.

The Mountaineers continued their offensive output in the eighth. Sophomore Skylar King recorded an RBI on a fielder’s choice and Logan Sauve followed with a deep line drive down the left field line and over the wall for a three-run blast and a 13-0 lead.

Freshman Joseph Fredericks took the mound in the eighth and Luke Lyman went 1-2-3 in the ninth to keep the Wildcats off the board in the final two innings as the Mountaineers coast to the 13-0 decision.

The Mountaineers and the Wildcats will square off for a series deciding game three Sunday afternoon. The first pitch is set for 1:00 p.m. EST.

The University of Virginia will be represented with two teams at the quarterfinals of the 2024 NCAA Tennis Championships next week. One day after the Cavalier men booked their ticket to Stillwater with a 4-1 win over South Carolina, the No. 5 seed Virginia women’s tennis team joined them by taking down Vanderbilt 4-1 on Saturday afternoon at the Virginia Tennis Facility at Boar’s Head in Charlottesville.

The Cavaliers got off to a strong start in doubles play, with Sara Ziodato and Meggie Navarro cruising past Anessa Lee and Amy Stevens 6-1 and Natasha Subhash and Hibah Shaikh earning a tough 7-5 win over Bridget Stammel and Valeria Ray to claim the doubles point. The other doubles match was knotted at six games apiece when the point was decided.

Elaine Chervinsky scored the first singles point for Virginia, beating Holly Staff 6-1, 6-2 on court 5. Natasha Subhash added a 6-3, 6-2 win over Valeria Ray on court 3 to make it 3-0 in favor of the Cavaliers. Vanderbilt’s lone point of the day came on the top court, where Celia-Bella Mohr outlasted Hibah Shaikh 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 to get the Commodores on the board.

After dropping the first set, Melodie Collard bounced back and ultimately clinched the victory for Virginia with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Amy Stevens on court 6.

Virginia went a perfect 15-0 at home this season and has won 22-straight matches at Boar’s Head in Charlottesville. Saturday’s win was UVA’s 25th of the season, breaking the single-season program wins record.

“I’m just really proud of the entire team. I’m so happy for them and happy we could get this win today for our three seniors,” said UVA head coach Sara O’Leary. “They’ve meant so much to the program and it’s really bittersweet knowing that this is the last time they’ll play on these courts. But for them to finish with that match and this situation, I’m just really proud of them and really happy for them. We’re really excited for this opportunity and to get to keep playing. We’ll use this time today and tomorrow to really recover and then get back to work.”

The win advances Virginia to the quarterfinals for the fourth time in program history and second time in the last three years. UVA will face No. 13 seed Texas A&M, who handed the No. 4 seed North Carolina Tar Heels their first home loss in six years.

Virginia and Texas A&M will battle for a spot in the NCAA semifinals on Friday, May 17th at Oklahoma State’s Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner – literally.

A Virginia man recently went to the grocery store to pick up some chicken – and came back half a million dollars richer.

Russell Gomes, of South Boston, Virginia, went to the Food Lion grocery store recently to buy chicken, he told the Virginia Lottery’s website. 

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South Boston is located in southern Virginia, about 20 miles north of the North Carolina border. 

While he was shopping, he decided to buy a scratch-off ticket – specifically, the Virginia Lottery’s “Magnificent 7s” scratcher.

Gomes, a tractor-trailer driver, went to scratch off his ticket in the store’s parking lot – and got the surprise of a lifetime.

 “I really didn’t believe it!” he told Lottery officials when he redeemed his winning ticket on May 3. “It feels great!

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Gomes told the Virginia Lottery that he plans on using his winnings to pay off a vacation that he had already scheduled. 

Magnificent 7s, the game Gomes played, has prizes ranging from $20 to $500,000, said the Virginia Lottery.

Gomes told the Virginia Lottery that he will be using his winnings to go on vacation.  (iStock / iStock)

There are two additional $500,000 top prizes that have not been claimed, they said.

The Virginia Lottery was established in 1987, after Virginians voted in favor of creating a state-operated lottery. 

The first tickets were sold the following year, said the Virginia Lottery’s website.

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Since 1999, the Virginia Lottery’s profits have supported K-12 public education in the commonwealth, said its website.

In 2023, this amounted to more than $867 million that went to public education in the state. 

The Virginia Lottery’s profits support schools in the commonwealth.  ( Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

This was about 10% of the commonwealth’s budget for K-12 schools, said the Virginia Lottery’s website. 

These funds are distributed throughout Virginia’s counties. 

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Gomes lives in Halifax County, noted the Virginia Lottery’s website, which received “more than $4.4 million in Lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year.”

During the 2023 fiscal year, the Virginia Lottery had sales of $4.6 billion. 

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Of those sales, more than $3.5 billion was distributed to lottery winners and the retailers who sold the winning tickets, said the lottery’s website.