MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — At the end of a weekend marked by tight games, West Virginia finally claimed one when No. 5 Texas Tech’s defense faltered.
The Mountaineers capitalized on three fifth-inning errors — two on wild throws by Red Raiders ace Steven Gingery — to score the tying and go-ahead runs in a 3-2 victory Sunday, avoiding a three-game sweep.
Reliever Jackson Sigman (3-3) struck out Texas Tech’s leading hitter Hunter Hargrove in a key situation, Braden Zarbnisky followed with three shutout innings and freshman Cody Wood earned his first save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Texas Tech (39-13, 13-8), which came to Morgantown averaging 7.4 runs per game yet scored only seven runs in the series, sank two games behind conference leader TCU.
“That’s as good of a weekend as we can have under the circumstances, with the rain, the injuries and the freshmen that went out there and pitched,” West Virginia coach Randy Mazey said. “Cody Wood, who got the save right there, he’s the same guy that was out there two weeks ago against TCU that couldn’t throw a strike and got caught up in the moment.
“This team is growing up, they’re growing up and playing with the best teams in the country. That might be the best team in the United States right there, that we came in and played three one-run games with and obviously could have won more than that.”
The Frogs’ sweep of Texas eliminated West Virginia (27-19, 11-10) from contention for the Big 12 regular-season title, and Oklahoma’s series win at Kansas State dropped the Mountaineers into fourth place.
After Texas Tech won Saturday’s doubleheader 1-0 and 4-3, getaway day provided another one-run game.
Leading 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth, Gingery (8-1) leaped to deflect Zarbnisky’s chop single and overthrew first base. Moments later, with Zarbnisky breaking early from second base, Gingery spun on the mound and flipped the ball over the head of third baseman Josh Jung for a game-tying mistake.
After two walks and a booted grounder by Jung, Gingery was lifted for Caleb Killian, who yielded Cole Austin’s go-ahead single.
Gingery, who suffered his first loss in 14 starts, remained the Big 12 ERA leader at 1.57 after being charged with three runs (one earned) over 4 2/3 innings. It was his shortest start aside from a rain-interrupted outing vs. TCU.
Alek Manoah lasted 4 2/3 innings for WVU, allowing two runs on four hits and three walks.
Along with Zarbnisky’s 3-for-4 day, Kevin Brophy had two hits, including an RBI single in the fourth.