MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Shortstop Taylor Munden continued his offensive tear with a homer and three hits as West Virginia scored all its runs in the first two innings and held on to beat Ball State 7-6 on Saturday at the Chanticleer Classic.
The win was crucial for the Mountaineers (4-5) after dropping two games Friday.
“That’s the third time we’ve scored a lot of runs in the first couple of innings and haven’t been able to hold the lead, so we are going to have to address that,” coach Randy Mazey said. “I really didn’t think we did anything to rest on our laurels, so to speak. We kept swinging the bats and we hit a lot of line drives right at people. We had a really good day offensively.”
Munden drove in two runs and right fielder Brad Johnson had a grand slam as West Virginia went up 7-0 in the second inning against Trevor Henderson (0-1).
But when WVU starter Adam Keller couldn’t survive the top of the fourth, Jeff Hardy (1-0) came on to pitch 5 1/3 innings in one-run relief for his first career victory. Hardy allowed five hits with three strikeouts before freshman Nick Wernke got the final out for his first career save.
Munden led off the bottom of the first with a first-pitch solo shot to left field, his third homer of the season. Third baseman Justin Fox followed with a triple and scored on a grounder by Jackson Cramer.
The Mountaineers extended the lead with a five-run second, highlighted by Johnson’s bases-loaded shot, his second homer of the year. Munden had an RBI single and closed the day hitting .395.
Ball State (5-4) clawed back, scoring three in the third and two in the fourth. That chased Keller (0-1), who allowed five hits, five runs, one walk and struck out three in 3 1/3 innings.
Ball State’s Sean Kennedy cut the WVU lead to one run, leading off the top of the eighth with a solo homer.
West Virginia returns to action at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday to take on No. 25 Illinois.