MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 24 West Virginia University baseball team clinched the series against Cincinnati on Friday with a 6-4 victory at Kendrick Family Ballpark. The Mountaineers improve to 33-4 and 12-3 in the Big 12 while the Bearcats fall to 21-17 and 8-9 in conference play.
 
WVU has now won 13 straight games, matching the longest winning streak of the season.
 
Junior Logan Sauve, senior Jace Rinehart, and senior Grant Hussey all hit home runs in the game. Rinehart and Hussey each drove in two runs while Sauve and redshirt junior Chase Swain knocked in one.
 
Senior Reese Bassinger improved to 4-0 on the season with 4.0 innings of work in relief while striking out four. Junior Carson Estridge earned the save with a strikeout in a perfect ninth inning.
 
The Mountaineers took an early lead in the first inning as Rinehart hit a pop up to first base that the Bearcat first baseman could not catch as he battled the wind, allowing senior Kyle West to score from third.
 
After Cincinnati tied the game in the fourth with a home run, Swain put WVU back on top in the home half with a shallow sacrifice fly. Rinehart tested the left fielder and the throw beat him, but the catcher dropped the ball when applying the tag.
 
Sauve started the home run barrage in the fifth with a solo shot before Rinehart and Hussey both went deep in the sixth to extend the Mountaineer lead to 6-1.
 
The Bearcats got a run in the seventh and two in the ninth but never got the tying run to the plate as Estridge shut the door.
 
West Virginia will go for the sweep on Saturday with first pitch set for 2 p.m.
 
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.