GRANVILLE — The West Virginia baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Minnesota Sunday afternoon with a come-from-behind 7-4 victory at Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark. The Mountaineers improve to 10-4 on the season while the Golden Gophers fall to 2-14.
“Those guys are very capable of beating a lot of people so that’s a pretty good weekend for us,” WVU head coach Randy Mazey said. “We haven’t had many close games late this year and we are trying to find opportunities to get guys out on the mound so today was good experience for us. We’re starting to act like we like to win.”
Trailing 3-2 entering the eighth inning, WVU scored five runs in the frame to jump out ahead and held on in the ninth to secure the victory.
Junior Braden Barry went 3-for-4 while freshman Sam White and redshirt-senior Tevin Tucker each added two hits. Six different players had an RBI and seven players scored a run.
On the mound, sophomore Grant Siegel allowed two earned runs in 5.2 innings while striking out a season-high six. Redshirt-senior Noah Short threw a third of an inning with a strikeout to earn his first win of the season. Junior Carlson Reed threw 2.0 scoreless innings while sophomore Keegan Allen closed out the game with two strikeouts in the ninth.
West Virginia took the lead in the third inning as sophomore J.J. Wetherholt hit a sacrifice fly before Minnesota tied it up in the fourth with an unearned run. The Mountaineers retook the lead in the home half of the fourth on two doubles from White and sophomore Grant Hussey, but the Golden Gophers jumped out in front with two runs in the sixth.
The Mountaineers threatened in the seventh with first and third and one out but came up empty. The eighth was a different story, however, as they scored five runs on two hits to take the lead.
After two walks to begin the inning, freshman Ellis Garcia looped a single over the second baseman to tie the game. A passed ball followed, allowing WVU to take the lead before a groundout from junior Landon Wallace made it a 5-3 game. Tucker tacked on another run with a double before a bases-loaded walk concluded the scoring for the Mountaineers.
Minnesota got one run in the ninth, but Allen shut the door with a strikeout to clinch WVU’s 10th win of the season.
The Mountaineers now hit the road for spring break in North Carolina. The week gets started on Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. against Appalachian State from L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory, North Carolina.
