MORGANTOWN — The University baseball team (13-13) exploded for 22 runs on 15 hits in just four innings of offense. Despite facing an early 3-1 deficit, head coach Brad Comport’s team found its groove and simply put the ball in play on the way to a 22-5 victory over Buckhannon-Upshur on Tuesday night to open Class AAA Region I, Section 2 play.
B-U got the scoring started when Cam Tenney singled on the first pitch of his first at-bat in the first inning, but the Hawks matched the Bucs when Aaron Forbes singled to left field. The UHS third baseman was 3 for 4 on the night at the plate, with three RBIs and three runs scored. He also drew one walk.
Forbes was one of five UHS batters to tally three RBIs, in fact. Eight total batters earned a hit and the Hawks only had four strikeouts as a team.
“Our guys really hit well today 1 through 9,” Comport said. “We had a patient approach at the plate. I tell our guys to keep it simple, stay within themselves and take their best swing consistently. I also preach to our guys the importance of situational hitting and scoring with 2 outs. I thought we did both of those things well today.”
In total, 10 runs were scored with two outs for UHS.
After B-U added two more runs in the second inning to take the lead at 3-1, UHS came to bat with a purpose and wouldn’t look back. The Hawks blew open the lead with a four-hit, six-run inning in the second. They took the lead 7-3 and followed with eight more runs in the third, and seven more in the fourth.
What began as a game that seemed to be going seven full innings, if not more, turned out to be a field day for the UHS offense. Not to be outdone however, was the defense of the Hawks. Zero errors and only seven hits allowed provided a nice cushion for the offense to come alive.
“Our defense today was clean and efficient and we were able to turn a couple double plays. I am very happy to see that,” Comport said.
University will advance and travel to play at Bridgeport in the next round of sectional play at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
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University (13-13)
Latocha 2 3 1 0 Campbell 5 2 1 0 Braham 4 2 1 3 Forbes 4 3 3 3 Templeton 3 2 2 2 Jansen 4 2 2 3 Thomas 2 3 1 1 Croston 4 0 3 3 Edwards 2 2 1 3
Buckhannon-Upshur
Calef-Boring 3 1 1 0 Bryant 2 1 1 0 Tenney 2 0 1 2 Lane 3 0 1 1 Donnen 2 0 1 0 Marple 1 1 0 0 Crites 1 0 0 0 Snyder 1 0 0 0 Bennett 2 0 1 1 Tamer 1 0 0 1 Runyon 1 1 1 0
UHS 1687XXX – 22 15 0
BUHS 12002XX – 5 7 4
