West Virginia stranded a runner in every inning and saw TCU pull away late for an 8-1 victory Thursday night during the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City.
With each team’s NCAA regional hopes pinned to winning the tournament, No. 6-seeded TCU (32-22) moved one win from the championship game. No. 7-seeded West Virginia (28-26) must survive Texas Tech in a Friday elimination game and then beat the Frogs twice on Saturday to reach the final.
The Mountaineers outhit TCU 8-7 only to see control problems make a difference.
“We walked ’em seven times and hit ’em once, and you just can’t do that,” WVU coach Randy Mazey said. “They don’t have a great batting average as a team but if you put them on base for free they just draw a ton of energy from that.”
Ivan Gonzalez drove in West Virginia’s only run with a fourth-inning groundout.
Brandon White had two hits and two stolen bases, among the Mountaineers’ three steals that gives them a league-leading 93 this season. Braden Zarbnisky stole his 27th to tie for individual lead, though all that activity didn’t equate to many runs.
“We’re having pretty good ABs in this tournament,” White said. “We just need somebody to step up and get that double or home run we need.”
The Frogs snapped a 1-1 tie in the fifth against Isaiah Kearns (3-4) by generating a run from three singles and A.J. Balta’s sac-fly.
Balta delivered again in the seventh with a two-run double off the wall in left-center against Cody Wood before Michael Landestoy brought home two more with a single to make it 6-1.
Wood put two runners aboard in the eighth, both of whom scored after Riley Troutt relieved — one on Balta’s sc fly and the next on a wild pitch.
TCU’s Sean Wymer (6-3), after making recent bullpen appearances, gave up six hits but only one run during a five-inning start.
“Sean did a great job. He hasn’t started a game in a while and he’s been wanting the ball for a couple weeks,” said TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle. “He pitched out of some jams and limited the damage.”
Jake Eissler and Durbin Feltman combined to strike out six over the final four scoreless innings for the Frogs.