GRANVILLE, W.Va. — Five innings of no-hit baseball from Chansen Cole helped the Mountaineers secure their fifth Big 12 series victory in six tries with a 7-3 win over Houston in the rubber game of their weekend set.
Cole allowed just two walks and he struck out five batters in an efficient 68-pitch performance.
After dropping Friday’s series opener, 10-7, WVU scored seven runs in each of their last two games to win a Big 12 series for the third time this season after dropping the opener.
“We have proved to ourselves before that we could do it. We can bounce back from a loss. I think it shows how gritty the team is, how resilient we are and how close we are,” Cole said.
“These guys just keep playing,” said WVU head coach Steve Sabins. “They weren’t like dumping Gatorade coolers because we won the series today by any means. But they were kind of business-as-usual. I am just like, man, that’s hard to do, coming back and winning series after dropping Friday night, emotionally, that is really, really hard to do.”
Cole battled through illness to collect his sixth victory of the season.
“Anytime I go out, I think it is important to know my identity as a pitcher,” Cole said. “Going out there, filling up the zone and letting guys behind me make plays and get back in the dugout as quickly as possible so Brodie can go and hit some more home runs.”
“He was just pounding the zone. He is getting swing-and-miss. He is getting ground balls. I don’t know the numbers but I would imagine the contact against him has been as weak as just about anybody in the league in the last month or so,” Sabins said.
“He was one of the victims of that illness that was going around our team. In the last ten days, he has lost ten pounds. He was not feeling good, really. He is in a good spot, but weak, certainly.”
WVU scored runs in the first, second and fourth innings to build an early 3-0 lead. Paul Schoenfeld scored on a double steal in the first. Armani Guzman later scored on throwing and fielding errors in the second and fourth innings, respectively.
In the fifth inning, Brodie Kresser connected for his second home run of the season, a two-run shot into the Houston bullpen.
“I was just looking for a pitch to hit,” Kresser said. “Just going over the scouting report, doing all that stuff and trusting in the coaches and what they say. Getting a pitch to hit, I saw that one pretty big.”
Steve Sabins on winning their 5th of 6 Big 12 series despite dropping Friday’s opener to Houston: pic.twitter.com/PKGLjfyrB0
— Joe Brocato (@joebrowvm) April 19, 2026
WVU tacked on two more runs in the sixth with a solo home run from Matthew Graveline and a run-scoring single from Sean Smith. Smith, Guzman, Kresser and Graveline all contributed with two hits each.
“Offensively, I felt real good about what we were able to do the last two days,” said Sabins. “We stole some bases. We hit some homers. We got our bunts down. In general, we just played a pretty clean game.”
Five WVU relief pitchers combined to allow two hits in the final four innings. Carson Estridge retired five batters. Bryson Thacker, David Perez, Ben McDougal and Reese Bassinger pitched through the final 2.1 innings.
West Virginia (27-9, 12-6 Big 12) now stands second in the Big 12 standings behind league-leading Kansas. WVU will host Pittsburgh Tuesday evening.
Sabins provided updates on injuries sustained by Gavin Kelly and Maxx Yehl in Saturday’s game. Kelly injured his left wrist diving into first base, while Yehl was pulled from his start on the mound in the third inning.
“[Kelly] was able to move it but with some pain. He was on the putty protocol, where you are squeezing it and getting inflammation out. I think he had another X-ray today and he’ll have some MRI’s to make sure. But his spirit, he was in good spirits,” Sabins said.
“Yehl’s tests were really good. He’s a little bit banged up and he had some pain in his shoulder and a little pain in the bicep, but not in those targeted areas you get really concerned about.”
“Everybody on our team can hit anywhere,” Kresser said. “With the players we have, we have so much depth. I was out and we were winning. Kelly is out, we’re winning. Yehl goes down, we’re winning.”