Mountaineers start fresh: Hill’s 4-for-5 night ends Fort Worth jinx

FORT WORTH, Texas — Darius Hill’s eighth-inning single brought home the go-ahead run as West Virginia edged TCU 4-3 in Friday night’s series opener.

Hill went 4-for-5 with two RBIs for the Mountaineers (26-21, 8-11 Big 12), who had gone winless at Lupton Stadium in six previous games.

Both squads desperately need the series to bolster their postseason chances. The Frogs (27-19, 8-10) began the day listed among “the first five out” in D1Baseball.com’s projected field of 64.

Tristen Hudson (2-0) came on in the sixth after West Virginia’s 3-0 lead vanished and pitched two innings of one-hit relief. Alek Manoah added a scoreless ninth for his second save.

While the Mountaineers collected 14 hits, second baseman Kyle Gray’s 23-game hitting streak ended with an 0-for-5 performance.

Hill’s RBI singles in the first and sixth innings were sandwiched around Ivan Gonzalez’s double in the fourth as WVU gave B.J. Myers a 3-0 lead. Two walks and three straight hits in the TCU sixth brought an end to Myers’ night after 100 pitches.

Frogs starter Nick Lodolo yielded two runs on seven hits over 4 1/3 innings but did not factor into the decision. Cal Coughlin (2-2) sustained the loss after allowing the decisive runner, Braden Zarbnisky, to walk and steal second leading off the eighth.





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