The West Virginia Mountaineers (11-7) split two games against the William & Mary Tribe (13-3) in today’s doubleheader to start this three game series. Following the leads of their starters, Alek Manoah and Jackson Wolf, the offense came alive in both games to keep WVU alive for a possible series victory on Sunday.

Game 1: West Virginia (9) William & Mary (1)

It took the Mountaineers awhile to get the offense going, but when it did... man, was it beautiful.

Alek Manoah had another dominant outing on the bump. He threw 7.0 innings, giving up 4 hits, 3 walks and just 1 unearned run while striking out 9. That puts his strikeout number to an impressive 45 strikeouts in just 29.0 innings.

The Mountaineers scored 5 runs in the 5th inning to blow this one open. Kevin Brophy hit a solo homer to lead off the inning, Tevin Tucker and Ivan Gonzalez each hit RBI singles and Darius Hill hit a 2-run double to right-center field that put Manoah in a very good spot on the mound.

WVU added 3 more runs in the 6th as Brandon White and Tevin Tucker hit RBI singles. Darius Hill added WVU’s final run on a solo homer in the top of the 7th.

Game 2: William & Mary (6) West Virginia (4)

West Virginia got out to a hot start in game 2, putting up 2 runs in the top of the first inning. Marques Inman hit a RBI double down the left field line to score Ivan Gonzalez for the first run and Kevin Brophy hit a sacrifice fly to center field that allowed Darius Hill to jog in for the second run.

William & Mary got a run back on a solo homer by Hunter Smith (4) in the 4th inning.

TJ Lake hit a 2-run shot to right field for his first home run of the season in the top of the 6th, stretching WVU’s lead to 4-1... but that’s when the Tribe got their bats going.

Hunter Smith hit his second home run of the game and fifth of the season in the bottom of the 6th, bringing W&M back to within one. He then cracked a 2-run double to center field in the bottom of the 7th to put the Tribe up 5-4. He finished with 4 RBI’s in today’s game.

W&M added their final run in the bottom of the 8th on a RBI infield-single by Jack Cone. WVU got a baserunner on in the 9th, but wasn’t able to generate any offense as they dropped the nightcap 6-4.