GRANVILLE, W.Va. — West Virginia scored seven runs in the fourth inning and six more in the seventh to sweep their regular season series with Marshall, 17-8. The victory is the 100th for the Mountaineers at Monongalia County Ballpark/Wagener Field.
West Virginia extended their home win streak to 22 games in midweek, non-conference games dating back to April 3, 2017.
“Since we have been playing in this ballpark, our record against Pitt, Penn State, Maryland and Marshall — all the regional midweek games — is phenomenal,” said WVU head coach Randy Mazey. “If you are ever going to have a good season and play in the postseason, you have to win these games. We have been doing a really good job of that in the recent past.”
Marshall (13-16-1) jumped out to an early 4-0 lead. Ryan Leitch hit a solo home run in the first and capped a three-run third inning for the Herd with a run-scoring single. West Virginia answered with a run in the third and seven more in the fourth. The Mountaineers scored 17 unanswered runs in between the third and eighth innings.
Five Mountaineers had multi-hit games. J.J. Weatherholt went 4-for-5 with three runs batted in.
“His approach never changes and that is the beauty of J.J. He’s got the same approach no matter who we are playing, what the score is or what time of day it is. He’s got a tremendous approach at the plate.”
Austin Davis added three hits and Grant Hussey, Dayne Leonard and McGwire Holbrook chipped in with two hits each. Mazey inserted many young players into the lineup late in the game.
“It helps when you get some new guys in the game because they always come in the game with energy. If you have a lead, you try to get guys in there to keep the energy up. We managed to do that.”
Ten pitchers entered the game for the Mountaineers. Zach Ottinger (2-0) picked up the win with two scoreless innings.
“Guys just need to throw when you have a lot of pitchers. We went to TCU and played pretty good and we only used seven guys. So we had to pitch a lot of guys today and see who we can use on the next weekend.”
Travis Sankovich went 3-for-4 for the Herd. Former Mountaineer and Scott High School alumnus Carter Lyles pitched a pair of scoreless innings in relief for Marshall.
West Virginia (17-10, 2-1 Big 12) will host their first conference games of the season this weekend when Baylor comes to town. First pitch of the three-game series Friday evening is set for 6:30 p.m.