GRANVILLE — A day after facing the most touted pitching prospect in college baseball, West Virginia’s hitters swung their bats like they saw his ghost.
TCU’s Charles King surprisingly out-pitched either of the aces who were on display for dozens of Major League scouts in the opener, beating No. 17 West Virginia 6-1 on Saturday at Monongalia County Ballpark.
King (4-2) threw a complete-game four-hitter. allowing one unearned run, walking one batter and striking out eight.
The Mountaineers (27-17, 10-10), who had won five consecutive Big 12 series, now must rebound to avoid a sweep.
Desperate to crawl into NCAA tournament consideration, the Horned Frogs (26-19, 8-9 Big 12) took the fight to West Virginia early. Josh Watson led off the game with a homer against WVU starter Jackson Wolf (2-3), chasing him in the fourth inning.
TCU owns a 20-5 edge head-to-head against West Virginia since the programs joined the Big 12 in 2013.
“That’s a program that played in the College World Series four straight years,” Mazey said. “When May 1 rolls around, that’s when that experience shows up.
“You get late-season winning in your blood, and it’s hard to get it out of your blood.”
Wolf allowed seven hits in 3 1/3 innings. The last straw for Wolf was Zach Humphreys’ sharply hit RBI double that gave the Horned Frogs a 4-0 lead. Humphreys became the fifth run tacked on to Wolf’s pitching line, scoring from third when reliever Dillon Meadows induced a ground out.
King got lucky to avoid early trouble. A two-out Marques Inman double in the first bounded over the wall, keeping Brandon White at third base. White would have scored from first had the ball stayed in the park. King got Ivan Gonzalez to ground out to end that threat, then never broke another sweat until the seventh inning.
“That’s just the bad luck of baseball,” said right fielder Darius Hill. “Obviously that ties the game if it hits the wall.”
Even though opponents came into the game hitting .267 off King this season, the junior allowed only one hit and one walk from the second through sixth innings.
West Virginia’s only peep of offense came in the seventh, and it was set up by a leadoff throwing error that allowed Gonzalez to reach second base. Kevin Brophy came off the bench for a single to move him to third, and fellow substitute Tristen Hudson hit an RBI ground out.
West Virginia’s starting lineup finished the game hitting .111 (3-for-27) against King.
The Mountaineers look to be in desperate need of slugger Paul McIntosh, who has been out since last Saturday’s game at Texas with what Mazey calls a “day-to-day” injury. McIntosh leads the team with seven home runs and is tied for the lead with 28 RBIs.
“It’s pretty difficult to replace him,” Mazey said. “Batting average can be the biggest confidence-killer in the world. Those poor kids [replacing him] walk up there and see those batting averages up on the scoreboard. We’ve been trying to find that piece all season and we just haven’t found it yet. We have to keep trying to find that guy until Paul comes back.”
Junior righthander Kade Strowd (4-5), a Fort Worth native, will start for the Mountaineers on Sunday as they try to avoid getting swept by his hometown school. Strowd’s best performance this season came under similar circumstances when he allowed no runs on one hit to help West Virginia salvage the final game of its series at Oregon State.
