The last of 17 pitchers to toe the rubber in West Virginia’s come-from-behind 13-12 victory against Kentucky on Sunday night happened to be the same one who two days and some 55 hours earlier recorded 22 outs in the Mountaineers’ 4-3 walk-off win over the Wildcats.
Left-hander Griffin Kirn, the Mountaineers’ ace in his first season with the program, retired three of the four batters he faced and induced a fly ball off the bat of Ryan Schwartz that settled into Skylar King’s glove and wrapped up the Clemson Regional for West Virginia, which will next face LSU or Little Rock in the Super Regional round.
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All but 16 of Kirn’s 134 pitches over the two appearances came Friday, when he allowed three runs in the fourth inning and otherwise kept West Virginia well within striking distance to rally for an all-important victory in its postseason opener.
“He told me [Saturday] that he’d be ready to pitch, so today was a piece of cake for Griff,” first-year WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. “I knew that he wanted the ball. When we really cut through it, he said that he felt like he could throw quality pitches for two innings.”
Directly before Kirn came out for what amounted to his first career save, seven consecutive Mountaineers reached with two outs in the home half of the eighth inning to turn a five-run deficit into the 13-12 advantage.
A two-run single from Benjamin Lumsden tied the game at 12, before Armani Guzman knocked in the winning run with a single that marked his fourth his of the night, leaving Guzman 8-for-12 over three regional games.
“We said that if we tied the game, we were going to give the ball to Kirn,” Sabins said. “So throughout that entire long game and all the runs from both teams, still in the eighth, everybody on the staff was talking about situations and what we needed to do if we were to tie it, and that Griff would get the ball.”
The Mountaineers’ leader in innings pitched by a wide margin, Kirn worked around Carson Hansen’s one-out single, never went to a three-ball count and threw all but four of 16 pitches for strikes.
WVU’s ability to extend the eighth inning not only provided a six spot, it also helped ensure Kirn had the proper warm up before assuming an unfamiliar role.
“We had that really long inning, which was fortunate,” Sabins said. “We called an offensive timeout, they made three of four pitching changes, so Griff had a long time to get ready and as a starter, he’s more accustomed to taking his time getting ready.”
Of 13 pitchers among 27 players on the postseason roster, five were not utilized Sunday against UK. Two of them — Jack Kartsonas and Chase Meyer were likely unavailable after combining for 23 outs and 139 pitches one night earlier in a 9-6 victory against Clemson.
Cole Fehrman and JJ Glassock combined to record four outs without allowing a run or hit, and both entered having thrown 5 2/3 innings all season. Prior to Sunday, Fehrman had pitched three innings since April and Glasscock two.
Had the Mountaineers not rallied for Sunday’s victory, a winner-take-all contest with the Wildcats loomed Monday, which weighed heavily on Sabins’ mound for much of the 4 hour and 31-minute matchup.
“I’ve never managed any game like that before. It was really difficult because there were some pitchers that really showed great tonight, but we knew we’d have to use them tomorrow if we didn’t tie the game or get the lead,” Sabins said. “JJ Glasscock came in and threw as well as he’d have ever thrown and I took him out after 0.1 innings. Cole Fehrman threw the best he’d ever thrown, put up a zero and we took him out after one inning, because the math just didn’t add up for tomorrow as far as trying to piece together nine innings.
“You have to play aggressive and play to win, but I needed the players’ help, because I was having to make aggressive moves on the pitching staff to try to keep the score where it was, but we also couldn’t roll into a chance to win a regional and the cupboard be completely bare. It was a really weird balancing act that we haven’t had to do much this whole year, but the offense stepped up huge and kept coming.”