MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (May 13, 2023) – Grant Hussey hit a pair of homers and Blaine Traxel allowed two runs over eight innings to lead 12th-ranked West Virginia to a 17-2 victory over 25th-ranked Texas Tech today at Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark.
Light rain delayed the start of today’s game by 45 minutes, but it didn’t disrupt a Mountaineer offensive attack that scored in all but two innings. After plating one run in the first, West Virginia batted around in the second by adding four more.
A three-run third knocked out Red Raider starter Trendan Parish, who allowed eight earned runs on seven hits to drop to 3-2. Tech relievers Andrew Devine and Brendan Girton combined to give up nine earned runs on nine hits over the remaining five innings.
Traxel, meanwhile, was cruising along, the senior righthander retiring 10 straight during one stretch from the second until the sixth. He left the bases loaded in the sixth when he fanned Dillon Carter, and allowed only two solo home runs to Zac Vooletich in the seventh and Kevin Bazzell in the eighth.
Traxel’s final line was two earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts and a walk to improve to 7-4.
Keegan Allen pitched a scoreless ninth.
Coach Randy Mazey said Traxel lobbied to come out for the ninth after having thrown 114 pitches.
“Somebody asked me what his pitch count was and I said, ‘I don’t know and I don’t care.’ We needed Keegan Allen to throw an inning,” Mazey said. “He’s coming off an injury, so we needed to get him some experience. Accolades doesn’t do much for me. Winning games does a lot more for me.”
Hussey’s home runs came in the fifth, a solo shot, and in the seventh with one on. Both landed in roughly the same area in the WVU bullpen. Those were his 12th and 13th home runs of the season. He also singled in the first to finish the afternoon 3-for-5.
“It takes just one swing sometimes to get you in a good place mentally, and he had a couple of good swings late in the game,” Mazey said of Hussey.
Braden Barry smacked his seventh home run in the fifth, giving West Virginia 70 home runs for the season – second most in school history. The Mountaineers hit a school-record 76 homers in 2003.
JJ Wetherholt, the nation’s leading hitter, went 2-for-4 this afternoon to raise his batting average one point to .466.
Barry, shortstop Tevin Tucker and left fielder Landon Wallace had two hits each for West Virginia, now 38-13 and 14-6 in the Big 12.
Texas Tech claimed game one of the series on Friday night, 5-2.
“I told our team, after the loss yesterday an average team would have folded up today and not played hard,” Mazey said. “A good team would come out like we did today and win. A great team will do it again tomorrow.”
The 14 Big 12 wins equal the most ever by a WVU team with four conference games remaining.
West Virginia remains two games ahead of Oklahoma State and Kansas State in the league standings. The Cowboys defeated the Wildcats 19-5 in Manhattan earlier today.
Today’s attendance was announced as 3,227, the 10th-largest in school history.
West Virginia concludes the three-game series against Texas Tech tomorrow at 1 p.m. Prior to the game, West Virginia will be recognizing its seniors during a brief on-field ceremony.
“When you play a game like this, it’s inevitable no matter who you play, if you beat them by that much then the next day is always a dogfight,” Mazey said. “A few minutes ago they were down by 15, but their next at bat (tomorrow) it’s going to be a tie game.”
Tickets are available through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Light rain delayed the start of today’s game by 45 minutes, but it didn’t disrupt a Mountaineer offensive attack that scored in all but two innings. After plating one run in the first, West Virginia batted around in the second by adding four more.
A three-run third knocked out Red Raider starter Trendan Parish, who allowed eight earned runs on seven hits to drop to 3-2. Tech relievers Andrew Devine and Brendan Girton combined to give up nine earned runs on nine hits over the remaining five innings.
Traxel, meanwhile, was cruising along, the senior righthander retiring 10 straight during one stretch from the second until the sixth. He left the bases loaded in the sixth when he fanned Dillon Carter, and allowed only two solo home runs to Zac Vooletich in the seventh and Kevin Bazzell in the eighth.
Traxel’s final line was two earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts and a walk to improve to 7-4.
Keegan Allen pitched a scoreless ninth.
Coach Randy Mazey said Traxel lobbied to come out for the ninth after having thrown 114 pitches.
“Somebody asked me what his pitch count was and I said, ‘I don’t know and I don’t care.’ We needed Keegan Allen to throw an inning,” Mazey said. “He’s coming off an injury, so we needed to get him some experience. Accolades doesn’t do much for me. Winning games does a lot more for me.”
Hussey’s home runs came in the fifth, a solo shot, and in the seventh with one on. Both landed in roughly the same area in the WVU bullpen. Those were his 12th and 13th home runs of the season. He also singled in the first to finish the afternoon 3-for-5.
“It takes just one swing sometimes to get you in a good place mentally, and he had a couple of good swings late in the game,” Mazey said of Hussey.
Braden Barry smacked his seventh home run in the fifth, giving West Virginia 70 home runs for the season – second most in school history. The Mountaineers hit a school-record 76 homers in 2003.
JJ Wetherholt, the nation’s leading hitter, went 2-for-4 this afternoon to raise his batting average one point to .466.
Barry, shortstop Tevin Tucker and left fielder Landon Wallace had two hits each for West Virginia, now 38-13 and 14-6 in the Big 12.
Texas Tech claimed game one of the series on Friday night, 5-2.
“I told our team, after the loss yesterday an average team would have folded up today and not played hard,” Mazey said. “A good team would come out like we did today and win. A great team will do it again tomorrow.”
The 14 Big 12 wins equal the most ever by a WVU team with four conference games remaining.
West Virginia remains two games ahead of Oklahoma State and Kansas State in the league standings. The Cowboys defeated the Wildcats 19-5 in Manhattan earlier today.
Today’s attendance was announced as 3,227, the 10th-largest in school history.
West Virginia concludes the three-game series against Texas Tech tomorrow at 1 p.m. Prior to the game, West Virginia will be recognizing its seniors during a brief on-field ceremony.
“When you play a game like this, it’s inevitable no matter who you play, if you beat them by that much then the next day is always a dogfight,” Mazey said. “A few minutes ago they were down by 15, but their next at bat (tomorrow) it’s going to be a tie game.”
Tickets are available through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
