Baseball Notches Season High in Runs
March 07, 2015 05:16 PM | General
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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – The West Virginia University baseball team scored runs in each of the first six innings en route to an 18-2 win over ETSU on Saturday afternoon at Thomas Stadium.
The Mountaineers set season-highs in runs (18) and hits (20), while scoring the most runs in a game since it plated 20 against Eastern Michigan on March 22, 2011.
“They have a good club and I just told the team that the score went from 18-2 to 0-0,” coach Randy Mazey said. “When the game starts tomorrow we’re right back to even. Every time you get a game like this the next game is a dogfight so we need to come ready to play tomorrow.”
Thirteen different players had at least one hit, six players had multi-hit games and four players had multi-RBI games for West Virginia, including five RBIs from senior catcher Cam O’Brien and four RBIs from sophomore designated hitter Garrett Hope. Senior shortstop Taylor Munden went 2-for-5 with two home runs, two RBIs and three runs, extending his hitting streak to 12 games.
“We’ve been on both sides of a game like that,” Mazey said. “Kids get to feeling good about themselves and hitting is contagious, so everybody that stepped in there seemed like they had a pretty good game.”
Junior left-hander Ross Vance (2-1) only needed to go five innings for his second win of the season, allowing no runs on one hit with seven strikeouts and one walk.
“It’s a lot easier to pitch when you know that you have that cushion behind you,” Vance said. “You just have to worry about throwing strikes. You don’t have to worry about much else because you have a cushion to work with.”
Freshman second baseman Shaun Corso put the Mountaineers up 1-0 after one inning with a two-out single to left field to plate senior third baseman Justin Fox.
Fox then picked up three RBIs of his own with a two-out three-run home run to right center field in the top of the second, extending the lead to 4-0. The homer was the second of the season for Fox.
O’Brien made the score 6-0 in the top of the third, picking up his first RBIs of the season with a two-run single to right field.
In the fourth inning Munden hit a solo homer to right center field, making it 7-0 in favor of the Mountaineers.
West Virginia used a four-run fifth inning to break the game open at 11-0. Freshman left fielder Kyle Davis hit an RBI fielder’s choice, O’Brien had an RBI double to right center field and junior center fielder KC Huth reached on an error that scored two.
The Mountaineers plated six runs in the top of the sixth inning and the lead ballooned to 17-0. O’Brien had his fourth RBI of the day with a bases loaded walk, while Hope hit his first career home run, a grand slam to left field. Munden then notched his second home run of the game and fifth of the season, a moon shot over the left field fence.
West Virginia will look to complete the sweep on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. Sophomore right-hander Chad Donato (1-2) takes the hill for the Mountaineers and he will be opposed by ETSU right-hander Griffin Krieg (1-0).
A link to live stats is available on WVUsports.com.
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