ARLINGTON, Texas – The West Virginia University baseball team dropped its opening game of the Big 12 Championship to TCU, 5-2, Tuesday afternoon at Globe Life Field. The fourth-seeded Mountaineers will now face No. 6-seed Kansas State on Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET in an elimination game.
 
Sophomore Logan Sauve paced the offense with two hits including a two-run home run. Senior Reed Chumley had a double for the only other hit on the day for the Mountaineers.
 
On the mound, sophomore Carson Estridge suffered the loss by allowing two runs in 3.2 innings while striking out three. Sophomore Maxx Yehl pitched 1.1 innings, allowing one run while senior Hayden Cooper gave up a run in four innings of work.
 
The game remained scoreless until the third when TCU started its stretch of putting up one in four straight innings. The only answer the Mountaineers had came in the fifth when Sauve hit his seventh home run of the season.
 
Cooper kept the Horned Frogs off the board in the seventh thanks to some stellar defense. Sophomore Skylar King made a leaping catch at the wall before junior Grant Hussey made an over-the-shoulder sliding catch with a runner on third before turning and firing home for a double play.
 
Sauve hit a double in the eighth, but that was all the Mountaineers could muster the rest of the contest.
 
Graduate student Hambleton Oliver will make his first start of the season for the Mountainees tomorrow against the Wildcats who will answer with left-handed pitcher Owen Boerema.
 
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