Box Score STATESBORO, Ga. (Feb. 19, 2023) – Three home runs jump-started an offensive outburst for the West Virginia baseball team, Sunday afternoon, as the Mountaineers defeated Georgia Southern, 13-4, at J.I. Clements Stadium, to salvage the final game of the series and pick up their first win of 2023.
 
"The whole weekend, a lot of good things happened," said head coach Randy Mazey. "We got three quality starts out of three starting pitchers on opening weekend which is hard to do and a lot of new guys got to toe the rubber for the first time in their college careers as well. We swung the bats and played offense today. We could have come down here and won the series, but you've got to be happy with the way it ended."
 
Juniors Landon Wallace, redshirt-senior Caleb McNeely, and junior Braden Barry each hit home runs for the Mountaineers, the first three of the season for WVU. All three also knocked in three runs on the day.
 
On the mound, sophomore Grant Siegel got the start in his Mountaineer debut and threw 5.0 innings with three strikeouts while allowing three runs on just three hits.
 
Redshirt-freshman David Hagaman allowed one run in 1.1 innings in his collegiate debut while the final four relievers – senior Jake Carr, redshirt-senior Noah Short, sophomore Aidan Major, and sophomore Keegan Allen – completed the game with 2.2 scoreless innings with six strikeouts.
 
Georgia Southern jumped out to an early lead in the first as Preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year Noah Ledford hit a two-run home run.
 
WVU answered right back in the top of the second as Wallace blasted a three-run shot to left field to put the Mountaineers on top.
 
The next inning was McNeely's turn to put one over the wall as he crushed a 433-foot solo blast to left.
 
The Eagles got one run back in the home half of the third, but in the fifth, the Mountaineers pulled away as redshirt-senior Tevin Tucker hit a sacrifice fly before Barry connected on a three-run home run that went off his own face on the videoboard in left field.
 
The last chance for Georgia Southern came in the seventh when it loaded the bases with one out. Carr came out of the bullpen to strike out Ledford on a 3-2 count before Short relieved him and although he walked in one run, he limited the damage by getting Zane Faulk to swing and miss at another 3-2 pitch and strand the bases loaded with the Mountaineers still up by five.
 
Major pitched the eighth and struck out the first two batters on six pitches before getting a flyout to end the most dominant inning for a WVU reliever so far this season.
 
In the ninth, the Mountaineers tacked on four insurance runs on a sacrifice fly from redshirt-senior Dayne Leonard, a two-run single from McNeely, and a wild pitch.
 
Allen put the finishing touches on the game in the bottom of the ninth, striking out two of his four batters to seal the victory for West Virginia.
 
Up next for the Mountaineers is No. 13 Maryland in College Park on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. from Bob "Turtle" Smith Stadium and the game can be streamed on B1G Network+.
 
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