HOUSTON – The West Virginia University baseball team clinched the series against Houston with a 9-8 victory, Saturday evening at Schroeder Park. The Mountaineers improve to 29-4 overall and 9-3 in the Big 12 while the Cougars fall to 19-16 and 5-9 in conference play.
 
Junior Sam White and freshman Gavin Kelly each had three hits on the night with Kelly collecting two RBI and White scoring two runs. Senior Kyle West and redshirt junior Chase Swain each drove in two runs as well.
 
Houston jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one inning, but West Virginia answered in the second with three runs of its own. Senior Grant Hussey drove in a run with a groundout before Kelly doubled home two runs to even the contest.
 
Swain put the Mountaineers on top in the third with a two-run triple, his second three-bagger in as many nights.
 
Houston got one run back in the home half before West extended the lead back to three with a two-run double in the fourth. In the fifth, WVU added two more runs on an error and single by junior Skylar King.
 
The Cougars got back in the game in the bottom of the fifth with a three-run home run before getting within one run in the seventh. With the bases loaded in the seventh, junior Carson Estridge came out of the pen and escaped the jam to preserve the lead.
 
In the eighth, the tying run was thrown out at the plate as Hussey fired a strike to the plate to cut down the runner trying to score from second on a grounder to short. In the ninth, Estridge closed out the game with a 1-2-3 inning to earn his second save of the season.
 
The Mountaineers will look for the sweep on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET.
 
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