MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Wednesday night’s game between the Morgantown and University baseball teams ended under the mercy rule with the Mohigans running away with a 10-0 win in five innings at Mylan Park.
A quick glance at the line score would confuse anyone who didn’t watch the game — MHS forced the 10-run rule in a shutout but only out-hit UHS 5-2
Hawks head coach Buck Riggleman had an emphatic answer why his team struggled as much as it did.
“Last time I looked and asked coach (Michael) Smith about walks, we had 11 walks,” Riggleman said. “Let’s be honest, you aren’t going to beat anybody when you give up 11 walks. They out-hit us 5 to 2, but they scored 10 runs, and you walk people and compound that with a hit, it comes back to bite you.”
A couple errors and wild pitches also drove in runs for the Mohigans after they were scoreless through two innings. They finally got on the board in the 3rd inning, scoring two runs, but it was the 4th inning when everything unraveled for the Hawks.
Jacob Kennell, Ryan Fluharty and Quincy Thornton walked, and MHS broke the game open on a hit from Ty Galusky, followed by a costly error Hawks’ error to put the Mohigans up 8-0 after the inning.
“You get an error here and an error there, it was a proverbial thing — the wheels came off,” Riggleman said.
On the other side, Morgantown coach Pat Sherald was happy with the approaches his hitters took, even early when they weren’t scoring.
“We hit some balls hard but had nothing to show for it,” he said. “They kept a good focus with each at bat throughout the process. Obviously, we took our free bases when they gave them to us.”
The Mohigans’ five hits were from five different players, including Fluharty, Zach Owens, Galusky, Domenic Colasante and Caleb Nutter.
The star of the game was Morgantown lefty starter Reed Bailey, who tossed five shutout innings with just 65 pitches. He allowed two hits while striking out four, keeping the Hawks off balance all night.
“My curveball was on and my fastball was off a little early in the count — I threw a couple first-pitch balls — but I got the ball down for a strike and made them see if they could hit it,” Bailey said. “I’ve always been a pitch-to-contact guy, never really been a strikeout guy, but I did pick up a couple today.”
MHS was coming off a wild game from Tuesday night when it came back from 9-1 down to win in extra innings 13-12 against Robert C. Byrd. It was a quick turnaround and Sherald said he was a little concerned about a let down that ultimately never came to fruition.
“I was worried and we talked about it before that last night was a little bit of an unconventional game with a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “We were out here for 3-plus hours and we had to put that one away, turn the page because we had a good opponent here in University.”
MHS (12-2) will play at Logan at 2:30 p.m. Friday, while UHS (6-6) will travel to Brooke for a 4:30 p.m. first pitch.
MORGANTOWN (12-2)
Fluharty 2 1 1 1; Owens 2 1 1 1; Tornton 3 0 0 0; Brennan 3 1 0 0; Smith 2 1 0 0; Galusky 3 1 1 1; Colasante 1 2 1 0; Nutter 3 2 1 2; Kennell 1 2 0 0. Totals: 20 10 5 5.
UNIVERSITY (6-6)
C. Smith 1 0 0 0; Neal 2 0 0 0; Braham 2 0 0 0′ Forbes 2 0 1 0; E. Smith 2 0 0 0; Herter 2 0 0 0; Musgrave 2 0 0 0; Coombs 2 0 0 0; Edwards 2 0 1 0. Totals: 17 0 2 0.
MHS 002 62x x – 10
UHS 000 00x x – 0
EXTRA-BASE HITS
MHS: 2B (Fluharty, Nutter); UHS: 2B (Forbes).
PITCHING
MHS — Bailey 5ip, 2h, 0r, 0er, 2so, 0bb; UHS — E. Smith 3ip, 4h, 8r, 7er, 2so, 5bb; Harman 0ip, 0h, 0r, 0er, 3bb; Marsh 2ip, 1h, 2r, 2er, 4so, 3bb.
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