MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia baseball coach Steve Sabins felt the 13th-ranked Mountaineers put forth a quality showing in Sunday’s rubber match of a three-game set against No. 23 UCF at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
That didn’t mean WVU had anything to show for it.
The Mountaineers fell behind on an Andrew Williamson home run in the first inning and struggled to solve UCF starting pitcher Camden Wicker, who threw seven shutout innings to lead the Knights to a 5-1 victory, allowing the first-place team in the Big 12 Conference to win two of three in the series.
“After the game, I told them I feel like today, we out-pitched and outhit someone and lost,” Sabins said. “That’s the first time we have lost and I’ve said that. The truth is we easily could’ve been swept this weekend and we very easily could’ve won the series, because I believe we out-pitched and outhit UCF over the course of the game.”
UCF (20-9, 10-2) gained an early 1-0 lead when Andrew Williamson hit a first-inning home run to right field off Mountaineer starting pitcher Chansen Cole.
Wicker encountered rare trouble in the second after issuing a one-out walk to Matt Ineich, which was followed by a Matthew Graveline single.
The right-hander then escaped when Brock Wills hit a liner to first base that resulted in a double play.
“My guess is we probably had double the barrels of UCF today,” Sabins said, “but it didn’t go our way.”
Cole retired the side in order in the second and third frames to make it eight straight since Williamson’s home run, and he held UCF without a hit in the fourth and fifth innings to keep the one-run deficit intact.
With a runner at second and two outs in the sixth, Sabins elected to intentionally walk Williamson, a left-handed hitter with three home runs in the series and a team-high nine this season. No. 3 hitter John Smith III followed with a single that Ineich dove to stop and prevent from getting to the outfield, but it loaded the bases with two outs.
Cole was then relieved by David Perez, who got Zak Skinner to hit a ground ball to first, but it was misplayed by Armani Guzman and allowed UCF to score a second run.
The miscue turned out to be much more costly when Landon Moran followed by drawing a bases loaded walk and pinch-hitter James Hankerson Jr. singled to right to drive in a pair, leaving UCF with a 5-0 lead.
“That guy has really struggled with sliders,” Sabins said of Skinner. “Dave has the best slider on our team and has been our best pitcher. He capped that ball to the first baseman and we made an error. That game changes. [At] 1-0 going into the seventh, it could be a much different game. We still might be playing actually right now.”
Wicker took the mound to start the eighth, having allowed a mere two hits to that point. But after Brock Wills drew a leadoff walk, Matthew Robaugh followed with his second single of the contest, and the Knights turned to relief pitcher Kris Sosnowski.
WVU (21-7, 8-4) ultimately loaded the bases with no outs after Ben Lumsden drew a walk, but a sacrifice fly from Gavin Kelly was the lone run the Mountaineers managed.
Ineich hit a one-out triple in the ninth but was stranded at third.
WVU recorded 14 hits Saturday in its lone win against UCF in and a total of seven in two losses to the Knights.
“They really mix pitches well. They threw enough fastballs to try to keep on those and mixed pitches really well and located,” Robaugh said.
Cole fell to 4-1 with the tough-luck loss. He allowed four runs, one of which was earned, on three hits across 5.2 innings with strikeouts and a pair of base-on-balls.
Reese Bassinger threw 3.1 strong innings of shutout relief with four strikeouts in the loss.
“They’re a tough club. They were solid last year and they’re even better this year,” Bassinger said. “They’re good team. It’s a good matchup between two of the top teams in the Big 12.”
Wicker, who entered with a 2.78 earned-run average, improved to 3-1 with a second straight seven-inning start to match his longest outing this season.
“The biggest reason they ended up winning that game was Wicker went 113 pitches,” Sabins said. “They were very light on bullpen. They needed a heroic start out of their bullpen and that’s exactly what they got.”
Williamson finished 2-for-3 and drew two walks. Across the three games in Morgantown, he was 5-for-9 with four extra-base hits.
The Mountaineers are in third place in the Big 12, two games back of UCF and one game behind Kansas.
WVU is back in action Tuesday when it plays host to Marshall.