Box Score WACO, Texas – Sophomore Evan Smith played hero for the West Virginia baseball team, Friday night, against Baylor as his two-run double in the eighth inning was the difference in a 5-4 win for WVU over the Bears at Baylor Ballpark. The Mountaineers improve to 31-11 and 9-4 in the Big 12 while Baylor falls to 15-27 and 6-13 in conference play.
 
The hit for Smith came in his first at-bat of the game after entering as a pinch runner in the seventh. It was also just the fourth hit of the season for the Ashburn, Virginia native and his first two RBI as well.
 
On the mound, junior Ben Hampton threw 6.0 innings and allowed four runs while striking out four to bring his career total to 195. Sophomore Aidan Major followed with two perfect innings to pick up his third win of the season while junior Carlson Reed closed the game with a 1-2-3 ninth to collect his fifth save.
 
The Mountaineers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with two runs in the first and one in the second.
 
Graduate student Dayne Leonard got WVU on the board with a two-run single, driving in junior Landon Wallace and redshirt-senior Caleb McNeely, who had both reached base with two outs. In the second, a safety squeeze by graduate student Tevin Tucker resulted in the third run of the game for the Mountaineers.
 
Baylor got one run back in the second on a sacrifice fly from John Ceccoli. The Bears first baseman drove in the second run as well with a double in the fourth.
 
In the sixth, Baylor took the lead with two runs. After putting runners on second and third with nobody out, Hampton nearly got out of it with a groundout and pop up, but a two-out double drove in a pair of runs to put the Bears on top.
 
In the eighth, sophomore Grant Hussey reached second on a dropped fly ball by the left fielder before advancing to third on a groundout by freshman Ellis Garcia, the culmination of a 14-pitch at-bat. After junior Braden Barry walked, Smith pulled a ball between first and second at 106 mph allowing Hussey to score easily to tie the game. As the ball went into the corner, Barry kept running and got the signal to go home, scoring without a throw.
 
The defensive play of the game came in the top of the ninth as Garcia made a sliding play to his right at second base, got up and made the throw to Hussey, who picked the short hop for the first out of the inning. Reed did not need any more defensive heroics as he struck out the next two batters to secure the victory.
 
The two teams will return to the field tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. for the second game of the series.
 
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