CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia dug a three-run hole early against Marshall and couldn’t dig out, falling 3-2 on Tuesday night in front of 2,263 fans at Appalachian Power Park.
The win gave the Herd (16-27) a split in the two-game season series and dealt another blow to the fading postseason hopes of West Virginia (24-18).
The Mountaineers have lost six of their last nine games, falling more than 50 spots in the RPI to No. 98.
“Baseball people are superstitious people by nature,” coach Randy Mazey said. “I’m going to put the other sock on the other foot tomorrow when I wake up and see if we play any better tomorrow because of it.”
Marshall took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second against Freshman right-hander Shane Ennis (1-3). Matt Reed drove in Sergio Leon with a single to left field, followed by an RBI single to center by Robert Fajardo that scored Tyler Ratliff. Reed scored on a wild pitch.
“We tell our guys all of the time that the time to get to a starting pitcher is early before he settles in and (Ennis) gave up a bunch of hits with two strikes, some of them on 0-2 counts that were right down the middle,” Mazey said. “It’s part of being a freshman, you learn from stuff like that. The best way to learn is to fail and lose and he failed tonight with some of his pitches. That’s a great learning experience for him as long as he takes it the right way.”
Freshman right-hander Adam Keller was a bright spot, pitching six innings of one-hit relief with three strikeouts and one walk.
Marshall’s Josh King (1-2), who delivered a strong start in Morgantown last week, went 5 2/3 innings this time. He gave up two runs on four hits with six strikeouts and two walks.
“He’s pitching really well. I was pretty impressed with (King) last week,” Mazey said. “He’s less than a year off Tommy John surgery, and usually you’re not as good at that point until you get to about the year mark and then you’re really good at 18 months. He’s doing really well and I’m happy for that kid.”
The Mountaineers scored both their runs in the top of the sixth. Shaun Corso led off with a first-pitch homer to left field, his second Kyle Davis drove in Taylor Munden with a two-out single.
Chad Roberts had two hits to pace the Thundering Herd.
WVU visits Radford on Wednesday.