#22 Oklahoma Sooners: 2

West Virginia Mountaineers: 1

There was a pitchers duel in Morgantown on Friday night between Alek Manoah and Cade Cavalli. Ultimately, Cavalli came out on top as the #22 Sooners (22-5) (4-1) beat the Mountaineers (14-11) (0-4) to start the weekend.

The Sooners got both of their runs in the top of the 2nd inning and never relinquished the lead as they held off the Mountaineers 2-1.

Catcher Justin Mitchell hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored 1B Tyler Hardman for OU’s first run. CF Brady Harlan then hit a RBI single to left field that allowed 2B Conor McKenna to cross the plate and make the game 2-0 Sooners.

Alek Manoah settled down after that, recording 16 straight outs without allowing a run before being pulled after 7.1 innings of work. He finished with his lowest amount of strikeouts of the 2019 season after wiping out just 3 OU batters. Unfortunately, the WVU offense just wasn’t able to do enough to put the Mountaineers out in front.

In the bottom of the 6th, the Mountaineers loaded the bases with nobody out after Darius Hill had a leadoff double, Marques Inman had an infield single and Paul McIntosh got hit by a Cavalli pitch.

The Sooners went to the bullpen to leftie reliever Ledgend Smith who somehow kept the Mountaineers in check in the inning. He immediately induced Kevin Brophy into a double play that allowed Hill to score, but really ended the rally for WVU. Ivan Gonzalez struck out to end the inning and the Mountaineers best shot at taking the lead.

The Mountaineers and Sooners will be back on the field at 2:00 PM Saturday for Game 2 of the weekend. WVU is running a $3-$7 ticket deal for the Saturday and Sunday matchups, so if you’re in the Morgantown area, swing by Monongalia County Ballpark to cheer your Mounties onto a Big XII win.