CONWAY, S.C. — West Virginia hoped Brad Johnson’s two-run first-inning double was the start of a big day. Instead it was all the offense the Mountaineers could muster in a 5-2 loss to Kent State in Friday’s opener at the Chanticleer Classic.
In the nightcap, Coastal Carolina downed West Virginia 4-3 on a walk-off homer in the 13th inning.
“You have a young team with a bunch of kids who have never played here before and you get into a game like that, that’s valuable experience for some of these guys to play in a game like that,” coach Randy Mazey said.
The Mountaineers (3-5), losers of three in a row, managed only six hits vs. Kent State (3-4), who got a strong six-inning start from Nick Jensen-Clagg. Zach Willeman recorded the final two outs for the save.
BJ Myers (0-1) sustained the loss after allowing four runs on 11 hits in six innings.
Against Coastal Carolina (6-2), the Mountaineers received a solid start from Ross Vance and rallied from a 2-0 ninth-inning deficit on a Kyle Davis groundout and Shaun Corso’s sac-fly.
Taylor Munden’s two-out single in the top of the 12th scored Shaun Wood to put WVU ahead, but the Chanticleers tied it against reliever Chris Dotson (0-1) in the bottom half. An error by Corso at second base put the tying run aboard before Anthony Marks’ single tied it.
Though Dotson struck out the next two batters to extend the game, he surrendered a leadoff homer to G.K. Young in the 13th.
West Virginia slipped to 1-5 when scoring four runs or less.
Vance fanned eight over 8 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits and throwing 114 pitches.
Blake Smith followed with 1 1/3 innings of hitless relief, pitching around three walks.
West Virginia is slated to face Ball State on Saturday and Illinois on Sunday.