HOUSTON – The West Virginia University baseball team cruised to a 9-2 victory over Houston, Friday evening at Schroeder Park. The Mountaineers improve to 28-4 overall and take over first place in the Big 12 at 8-3 while the Cougars fall to 19-15 and 5-8 in conference play.
 
Juniors Skylar King and Logan Sauve each reached base four times with three hits and a walk. Redshirt junior Chase Swain drove in three runs on two hits while senior Kyle West had two RBI.

On the mound, redshirt senior Griffin Kirn allowed just two runs while striking out five in 6.0 innings. Senior Reese Bassinger closed the game with 3.0 scoreless innings to earn his fifth save of the season.
 
Swain gave the Mountaineers the lead in the second with a single before knocking in another run in the fourth on an RBI triple. A two-out error allowed another run to score for WVU before a bases-loaded walk to West and an RBI single by senior Jace Rinehart extended the lead to 5-0.
 
Houston got on the board with a run in the fourth, but Swain answered with a sacrifice fly in the fifth for his third RBI of the night. The two teams traded runs in the fifth and sixth inning as well with West hitting an RBI single.
 
In the eighth, the Mountaineers added two insurance runs on an error and single by freshman Gavin Kelly.
 
The two teams will meet again on Saturday for game two of the series with first pitch set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
 
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