Mountaineers Drop Road Contest at Pitt

PITTSBURGH – The No. 12 West Virginia University baseball team fell to Pitt, 10-9, Tuesday evening at Charles L. Cost Field as the Panthers rallied for five runs in the ninth inning. The Mountaineers fall to 39-8 on the season while Pitt improves to 25-21.
 
Senior Jace Rinehart had three hits and two RBI while junior Sam White collected two hits and drove in two runs. Senior Kyle West hit his seventh home run of the season and reached base four times.
 
White got the Mountaineers on the board in the first with an RBI single before a fielder’s choice from junior Logan Sauve and groundout by senior Brodie Kresser pushed across two more. In the second inning, West launched a solo home run the other way, his second in as many games.
 
Pitt got on the board in the third with three runs before senior right-hander Tyler Hutson came in and cooled the Panthers bats with six strikeouts in 4.0 innings.
 
A single from West and sacrifice fly by White extended the lead to 6-3 in the top of the sixth before a two-run home run by Pitt in the home half made it a one-run game once again.
 
In the eighth, Rinehart knocked in two with a single before senior Grant Hussey laid down a squeeze bunt in the ninth to score Kresser from third, making it 9-5.
 
However, in the bottom of the ninth, the Panthers scored five runs on three hits, a walk, two hit-by-pitches, and couple of fielder’s choices to get their first win the Backyard Brawl since 2022.
 
The Mountaineers will return to Big 12 play this weekend, May 9-11, at Kansas State. WVU sits in first place at 18-4 in conference play and is up by three games on Arizona State with six games remaining.
 

 
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