Baseball Falls Despite Donato’s Gem
May 21, 2015 12:21 AM | General
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TULSA, Okla. – The West Virginia University baseball team dropped its opening game of the 2015 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship to No. 11 Oklahoma State, 3-0, on Wednesday evening at ONEOK Field.
West Virginia (27-26) was shutout for just the third time this season and had six hits and three errors. Oklahoma State (35-17) scored three runs on nine hits with no errors.
Despite the loss, sophomore right-hander Chad Donato (7-6) pitched a gem in seven innings. He gave up three runs on seven hits, tying a career high with 10 strikeouts and only one walk.
Freshman designated hitter Kyle Davis led the Mountaineers at the plate with two hits.
“That was a pretty good pitching matchup right there. Chad Donato pitched as well as he has since becoming a Mountaineer; that was fun to watch,” coach Randy Mazey said. “That is really exciting to see for our future and his. If he is able to do that, Chad is going to be able to win a lot of games for us.”
West Virginia had the leadoff hitter reach by way of single in each of the first three innings, but the stranded seven runners through four innings and was not able to get on the scoreboard.
The best chance came when Davis singled up the middle and senior third baseman Justin Fox doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs in the top of the first. A foul out followed by two fly outs stranded the runners.
“If we had counted the amount of times we touched third base instead of home I think we would have won,” Mazey said.” I do not think they (Oklahoma State) had someone on third base the entire night, at least not for any significant length of time. We had guys on third base the first four innings and could not score them. That was where the game was lost, the missed opportunities in the first four innings.”
Oklahoma State took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third with a two-out rally. Corey Hassel singled up the middle and then stole second before being driven in by a single through the right side off the bat of Donnie Walton.
Dustin Williams led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo home run to right field, extending the Cowboy lead to 2-0. It was his sixth homer of the season.
Oklahoma State added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth with a solo home run to right field by Walton.
Hassel, Walton and Williams had two hits apiece to lead the Cowboys with Walton driving in two runs. Reliever Trey Cobb (4-1) picked up the win, pitching five perfect innings. He struck out five batters.
West Virginia will face No. 3 seed Oklahoma in an elimination game on Thursday, May 21, at 1:30 p.m. ET. The Sooners fell 7-3 to Kansas State on Wednesday afternoon.
The game will be televised on Fox College Sports, while it can be heard on the affiliates of the Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG with Jeff Culhane on the call.
Additionally, fans can listen to the broadcast via the WVU Gameday App on their mobile device, as well as the TuneIn Radio App. WVUsports.com also will carry free live audio via the LeanStream Player at WVUsports.com/audio.
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