WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Jacob Rice went 4-for-5 and Brady Wilson belted a solo homer among his three hits carrying West Virginia’s baseball team past Wake Forest 9-2 on Saturday.
Six hitters recorded multi-hit games for the Mountaineers (3-3), who defeated Youngstown State 7-3 earlier in the day and will meet Wake Forest again Sunday.
WVU’s 16 hits backed the comeback pitching of left-hander Harrison Musgrave (1-0), who made his second start since coming off Tommy John surgery. Musgrave pitched five-hit ball over eight innings, allowing a solo homer to Joey Rodriguez — and two runs overall — with four strikeouts and no walks.
“We knew going into it that it was going to be a long day and that it was going to stretch our pitching staff,” coach Randy Mazey said. “Harrison Musgrave throwing eight innings was huge for us, and going into tomorrow we still have some of our best guys fresh.”
West Virginia led 2-0 in the first on a sac-fly by DH Matt Frazer and an RBI-double from Ryan McBroom.
The lead grew to 3-1 on Wilson’s solo shot in the second, before third baseman Ryan Tuntland drew a bases-loaded walk in the third.
Rice’s RBI-single highlighted a two-run sixth that chased Wake Forest starter Jack Fischer, who allowed four earned runs on 10 hits.
The Mountaineers tacked on three in the seventh with Wilson ripping a run-scoring double and center fielder Bobby Boyd converted to squeeze.
“We grinded it out with two strikes and it was an unbelievable offense approach today with two strikes,” Mazey said. “Coach (Steven) Trout did a great job with the hitters and we didn’t give up with two strikes. We kept battling and got a lot of hits with two strikes and two outs to keep some innings alive. It was a total team effort.”
Sunday’s WVU-Wake Forest game is scheduled for 4 p.m.