STILLWATER, Okla.— Alek Manoah pitched three-hit baseball over eight shutout innings and West Virginia cruised to an 11-1 victory Friday against No. 24 Oklahoma State.
Marques Inman went 4-for-5 with two doubles and four RBIs and Darius Hill doubled twice with three RBIs for the Mountaineers (18-11, 3-4 Big 12), whose win streak reached four games.
Ivan Gonzalez went 3-for-4 with a double and Brandon White finished 3-for-5 and scored three times. Next to last in Big 12 batting, West Virginia pounded out 17 hits.
Manoah (4-2) was nearly untouchable, striking out 11 without allowing a walk. He lowered his ERA to 2.11 while throwing 102 pitches — 70 for strikes — in a career-long outing.
“When you need a competitive guy to put the team on his shoulders and win a game, he’s the guy you want to give the ball to,” West Virginia coach Randy Mazey said. “He really pitched well tonight, had all three of his pitches going and got better as the game went on.”
The Cowboys (18-10, 5-2), who entered the D1Baseball.com rankings this week, scored their lone run in the ninth against Gabe Kurtzhals.
“It’s a lot easier pitch when your offense is scoring runs,” Manoah said. “I can’t walk a lot of guys because I want to go deep into games. Just being able to save that bullpen for the rest of the weekend is huge.”
Oklahoma State’s lineup — missing key hitters Bryce Carter (.306, 19 RBIs) and Carson McCusker (.344, 20 RBIs) — was outmatched.
Jensen Elliott (3-2) lasted only three innings for Oklahoma State, leaving with a 5-0 deficit after allowing four earned runs on seven hits.
Elliott issued a bases-loaded walk in the first inning and allowed a run to score on a wild pitch in the third.
Inman’s two-run double against reliever C.J. Verala made it 7-0.
Hill and Inman added back-to-back RBI doubles in the fifth as WVU stretch the gap to 10-0. Verala gave up five runs on seven hits over three innings.
The series continues Saturday with WVU sophomore lefty Jackson Wolf (2-2, 4.11 ERA) facing Cowboys senior right-hander Joe Lienhard (2-1, 2.67 ERA).
