ARLINGTON, Texas – The No. 1-seed West Virginia University baseball team defeated No. 8-seed Cincinnati, 10-3, Thursday afternoon in the Big 12 quarterfinals at Globe Life Field. The Mountaineers advance to play No. 4-seed Arizona on Friday at 5 p.m. ET.
 
Overall, the Mountaineers improve to 41-13 this season, setting a new program record for wins in a season, surpassing the previous mark set in both 1994 and 2023.
 
Redshirt senior Griffin Kirn tossed a complete game for WVU on Thursday, striking out nine while giving up three runs and scattering around eight hits. It was the first complete game for a Mountaineer this season.
 
At the plate, senior Kyle West continued his torrid hitting with his 10^th home run of the season. Freshman Gavin Kelly and senior Grant Hussey each had two hits while senior Brodie Kresser drove in three runs.
 
Cincinnati took an early lead in the first as a leadoff walk came around to score on a double. That was the only walk of the day for Kirn as he settled in after that.
 
West evened up the game in the fourth with a solo home run, the first hit of the day for the Mountaineers. Sophomore Spencer Barnett put WVU on top with a single before Hussey had an RBI single of his own. A sacrifice fly by Kresser followed by West's second RBI of the inning via a bases-loaded walk capped the five-run inning for the Mountaineers.
 
The Bearcats got two runs in the fifth, but a double play Kirn induced on Big 12 Player of the Year Kerrington Cross limited the damage.
 
In the sixth, West Virginia put up three runs as Kresser delivered an RBI single before junior Sam White had a clutch two-out, two-run single to push the lead to 8-3. A couple of run-producing outs in the seventh by Kresser and junior Skylar King made it a 10-3 ballgame.
 
Kirn handled it from there, retiring 11 of the last 12 batters to come to the plate.
   
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