PITTSBURGH, Pa. (April 19, 2023) – The West Virginia baseball team fell behind early, but came back strong to defeat Pitt, 9-4, Wednesday night at PNC Park in the Backyard Brawl. The Mountaineers improve to 26-11 on the season while the Panthers fall to 16-19.
West Virginia also improves to 5-0 at PNC Park with three wins against Pitt and two against Penn State.
The bullpen shined on the big-league mound as four pitchers combined to throw 6.2 scoreless innings. Freshman Gavin Van Kempen earned his second win of the season with 2.0 innings and a strikeout. After graduate student Noah Short got his two batters out, sophomore Grant Siegel threw 3.0 scoreless while striking out four. Graduate Blaine Traxel then finished the game with a scoreless ninth in his first relief appearance of the season.
Graduate student Tevin Tucker continued his stellar play with three hits as well as a couple of dazzling defensive plays at shortstop. Redshirt-senior Caleb McNeely hit his team-leading ninth home run of the season and drove in two while graduate Dayne Leonard and junior Braden Barry also collected two RBI.
The Mountaineers fell behind 4-0 after two-and-a-half innings, allowing two runs in both the first and third innings, but came back in the home half of the third with five runs. After loading the bases with no one out, junior Landon Wallace got the Mountaineers on the board with an infield single. Leonard followed with a two-run single before Barry tied the game with another infield hit. Freshman Logan Sauve then put WVU out in front as he took a close 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded for ball four to force in a run.
West Virginia extended its lead in the fourth with three runs beginning with an exciting play by Tucker as he stole third and never stopped as the pitch went to the backstop. McNeely followed with an RBI single before Barry tacked on another run with a sacrifice fly.
McNeely provided the knockout blow with a long home run in the sixth into the WVU bullpen in left-center. It is the first home run a Mountaineer has hit in the five games at PNC Park.
The Mountaineers will return to Big 12 action this weekend as TCU comes to Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark for three games. First pitch on Friday is set for 6:30 p.m.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
West Virginia also improves to 5-0 at PNC Park with three wins against Pitt and two against Penn State.
The bullpen shined on the big-league mound as four pitchers combined to throw 6.2 scoreless innings. Freshman Gavin Van Kempen earned his second win of the season with 2.0 innings and a strikeout. After graduate student Noah Short got his two batters out, sophomore Grant Siegel threw 3.0 scoreless while striking out four. Graduate Blaine Traxel then finished the game with a scoreless ninth in his first relief appearance of the season.
Graduate student Tevin Tucker continued his stellar play with three hits as well as a couple of dazzling defensive plays at shortstop. Redshirt-senior Caleb McNeely hit his team-leading ninth home run of the season and drove in two while graduate Dayne Leonard and junior Braden Barry also collected two RBI.
The Mountaineers fell behind 4-0 after two-and-a-half innings, allowing two runs in both the first and third innings, but came back in the home half of the third with five runs. After loading the bases with no one out, junior Landon Wallace got the Mountaineers on the board with an infield single. Leonard followed with a two-run single before Barry tied the game with another infield hit. Freshman Logan Sauve then put WVU out in front as he took a close 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded for ball four to force in a run.
West Virginia extended its lead in the fourth with three runs beginning with an exciting play by Tucker as he stole third and never stopped as the pitch went to the backstop. McNeely followed with an RBI single before Barry tacked on another run with a sacrifice fly.
McNeely provided the knockout blow with a long home run in the sixth into the WVU bullpen in left-center. It is the first home run a Mountaineer has hit in the five games at PNC Park.
The Mountaineers will return to Big 12 action this weekend as TCU comes to Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark for three games. First pitch on Friday is set for 6:30 p.m.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
