West Virginia Grabs Game One of the Backyard Brawl

Granville, WV – The No. 18 West Virginia Mountaineers (23-13) took the first game of a two-game season series against the Pitt Panthers (14-19) Wednesday night, 6-3.

West Virginia grabbed a 3-0 lead in the third with a little aid from the Pitt defense. Freshman Spencer Barnett hit a pinch-hit one-out single in the place of junior JJ Wetherholt. Then, sophomore Logan Suave hit a ground ball back up the middle, snagged by Pitt hurler Mathew Fernandez but threw the ball behind the shortstop into centerfield and Barnett scampered to third. Barnett scored on a wild pitch.

Sophomore Sam White drove and RBI double off the right centerfield wall before senior Reed Chumley capped off the three-run third with an RBI sacrifice fly to centerfield.

The Mountaineers added three runs in the fourth. Junior Grant Hussey was hit by the first pitch of the bottom of the inning by Pitt junior reliever Ethan Firoved and was given second on a balk. Junior Brodie Kresser bunted for a single and freshman Aaron Jamison followed with hard ground ball for an RBI single through the right side before a RBI sacrifice bunt from Barnett and Sauve brought Jamison home with line drive centerfield to mark the fifth Mountaineer to record an RBI and a 6-0 WVU lead.

Pitt cut the Mountaineers’ advantage in half in the eighth when a leadoff single from Jonah St. Antoine, a pair of ground balls moved the freshman to third, before junior Luke Cantwell delivered the RBI single back up the middle. Then, junior Jayden Melendez hit a two-run homerun as the Panthers were within three, 6-3.

West Virgina reliever Carson Estridge took the mound in the ninth. The sophomore gave up a walk but struck out two and collected the save as the Mountaineers held on for the 6-3 decision.

The Mountaineers are back in action this weekend as the Mountaineers travel to Lubbock, Texas. To take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders for a three-game Big 12 Conference series with game one set for Friday 7:30 p.m. EST, game two is slated for Saturday 3:00 p.m. and the series finale is Sunday at 2:00 p.m.