FORT WORTH, Texas — Unable to solve its Big 12 road woes, West Virginia’s road to an NCAA tournament berth became rockier.
TCU needed only four hits to win 8-5 Sunday afternoon, benefiting from 10 walks to take the rubber game of the weekend series.
Jimmy Galusky hit his seventh homer of the season and Tyler Doanes electrified with an inside-the-park variety, but it couldn’t prevent the Mountaineers (26-23, 8-13) from dropping their six straight Big 12 road series dating back to 2017. They are 3-9 in league road games this season.
Likely out of the running for an NCAA at-large bid, West Virginia hosts Baylor next weekend in the regular-season finale before heading to the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City where an automatic bid goes to the champion.
A.J. Balta hit a two-run homer for TCU (29-19, 10-10), which also scored three times on bases-loaded walks, including back-to-back passes by Braden Zarbnisky in the fifth that swelled the lead to 6-3.
Doanes’ two-run double pulled the Mountaineers to within 6-5 in the sixth, before the Frogs answered with Johnny Rizer’s sac-fly in the seventh.
Shane Ennis hit one batter and walked three more to give TCU an insurance run in the eighth.
Coming off a nine-strikeout performance at Kansas, WVU starter Isaiah Kearns (3-3) fanned two this time and left trailing 4-2 after Balta launched his fifth homer of the season in the third inning.
Second baseman Kyle Gray had two hits to raise his batting average to .368 for West Virginia, which fell to 1-8 all-time at Lupton Park.