OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — An early six-run cushion seemed on the brink of evaporating by the time West Virginia’s Braden Zarbniski backed himself into a bottom-of-the-ninth jam.
But with underdogs having their way at the Big 12 tournament, the Mountaineers hung on for an 8-5 upset over Oklahoma State on Wednesday night.
After issuing two walks and a balk, Zarbniski coaxed a game-ending grounder to leave the bases loaded as the No. 7 seed picked up a crucial first-round victory.
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Darius Hill and Ivan Gonzalez each drove in two runs for West Virginia (28-25), which overcame four errors in its quest to win the tournament to advance to an NCAA regional.
“That was four hours that shaved about 40 years off my life,” WVU coach Randy Mazey said. “It’s just pressure-packed this time of the year.”
No. 2-seeded Oklahoma State (29-23-1), which committed five errors, fell into a loser’s bracket game against third-seeded Texas Tech as the favorites went 0-4 on opening day at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
Regular-season champion Texas fell 3-2 to eighth-seeded Kansas, and No. 5 seed Baylor prevailed 4-0 over fourth-seeded Oklahoma.
“We competed until the very last pitch,” said OSU coach Josh Holliday. “When you make mistakes though, it’s difficult to beat a good team.”
Brandon White had three hits for the Mountaineers, who led 6-0 in the fourth when B.J. Myers (2-2) turned things over to the bullpen after 46 pitches.
Five relievers yielded mixed results, and OSU pulled within 7-5 in the seventh inning on back-to-back errors by pitcher Sam Kessler and third baseman Tyler Doanes.
“In a game like that, having a 6-0 lead is great, but you’d rather have it in the seventh than the fourth,” Mazey said. “You knew with their offense they were going to crawl back into the game.”
The Mountaineers face No. 6 seed TCU on Thursday in the double-elimination bracket.
“If we want to win this thing we have to play better than we did today,” Mazey said.
Gonzalez had a two-run single in the second inning to chase Cowboys right-hander Peyton Battenfield (2-3), who made his 25th appearance of the season but his first career start. Jimmy Galusky soon tacked on an RBI single.
Hill’s bases-loaded infield single in the third made it 4-0 and two more runners scored on the play when the throw by shortstop Matt Kroon skipped down the right-field line.