CLEMSON, S.C. – The West Virginia University baseball team rallied for a 4-3 victory over Kentucky, Friday afternoon at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The No. 2-seed Mountaineers advance in the winner’s bracket to play the No. 1 (11) Clemson/No. 4 USC Upstate winner tomorrow at 6 p.m.
Tied at three in the ninth, sophomore Armani Guzman hit a sacrifice fly to score senior Brodie Kresser from third, sending the Mountaineers out of the dugout to celebrate. Guzman finished the day with two hits, an RBI, and a run scored in his first start since May 4.
Redshirt senior Griffin Kirn put together a gutsy performance on the mound as he went 7.1 innings while allowing three runs, just one earned, and striking out seven. Senior Reese Bassinger tossed the final 1.2 scoreless innings to earn the win.
After three scoreless innings, Kentucky took a 3-0 lead in the fourth on a squeeze bunt and an error that allowed two runs to come across to score.
In the fifth, the Mountaineers benefitted from a pair of errors as one extended the inning before a throwing error by the Wildcat second baseman allowed two runs on the board for West Virginia.
Freshman Gavin Kelly started the sixth inning with a double before a sacrifice bunt pushed him to third. Kresser then came up and knocked him in with a groundout to even up the game.
The Wildcats went down in order in the seventh and eighth before threatening with two runners on in the ninth, but Bassinger struck out Luke Lawrence to get out of the inning unscathed.
In the ninth, Kresser doubled to lead off the inning before a passed ball got him to third. With a 1-0 count, Guzman lined a ball to center where the Kentucky center fielder made a diving catch, allowing Kresser to score easily
