MORGANTOWN — West Virginia won an important battle. It’s still to be determined if the Mountaineers lost a major piece of its arsenal.
WVU took down No. 18 Oklahoma State 6-3 on Friday at O’Brate Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., but star second baseman J.J. Wetherholt hurt his left hand while stealing second base in the seventh inning and eventually had to exit the game.
Wetherholt opened the game with his eighth home run of the season and added two singles for his 20th multi-hit game of the season.
After leading off the seventh with a single through the right side, the sophomore injured his left hand while sliding into second base for his 27th steal of the season.
Wetherholt, who leads the nation with 64 hits and leads the Big 12 with a .451 batting average, stayed in the game long enough to score on Dayne Leonard’s single to give the Mountaineers (24-10, 4-3 Big 12) a 5-3 lead.
WVU manager Randy Mazey then subbed in Sam White for Wetherholt, with Ellis Garcia taking over at second and White moving to third base.
The Mountaineers added an insurance run in the ninth when Caleb McNeely singled home White.
WVU won the game despite leaving 17 runners on base and beat the Cowboys (23-12, 7-6) for just the second time in the last seven meetings.
It was clutch hitting from the top three batters in WVU’s order — Wetherholt, Landon Wallace and Leonard — as well as solid pitching from starter Ben Hampton and closer Carlson Reed that did the trick.
Wetherholt, Wallace and Leonard combined for seven of the Mountaineers’ 11 hits and four of the team’s six RBIs.
Meanwhile, Hampton (3-1) went six innings and gave up three runs. He stranded two Oklahoma State runners in the fifth after the Cowboys had already scored two runs in the inning.
Reed picked up his third save after pitching the final three innings. In the eighth, OSU had runners on second and third with just one out, but Reed got out of the inning unscathed with a strikeout and a ground ball.
He allowed just one hit and struck out six for the save.
The second game of the series is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, with Blaine Traxel expected to get the start on the mound for the Mountaineers.
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