Mountaineers Walk-Off Walk #11 Red Raiders to Clinch Series

West Virginia Mountaineers: 4

#11 Texas Tech Red Raiders: 3

Marques Inman culminated an exciting day for WVU Athletics with a game-winning walk to hand the Mountaineers (22-12) (6-5) a series victory against #11 Texas Tech (22-11) (5-6).

WVU got started fast again, scoring twice in the 1st inning. Tyler Doanes and Brandon White each had singles to jumpstart the Mountaineer offense. After Darius Hill flew out to right field, Doanes and White stole 3rd and 2nd, respectively to set up the remainder of the inning.

Marques Inman hit a slow grounder to SS that allowed Doanes to score and White to advance to 3rd. After a Paul McIntosh walk, Ivan Gonzalez cracked a double down the left field line to score White and make it 2-0 WVU.

The next several innings featured great pitching by both sides, broken up eventually by a RBI groundout by TTU 1B Cameron Warren.

Jackson Wolf pitched well today for the Mountaineers, but ran into some trouble in the 5th inning. After 2 TTU singles to put runners in scoring position, DH Cole Stilwell singled to left field to allow 2 runs to score and give the Red Raiders a 3-2 lead.

The Mountaineers’ bullpen really couldn’t have been better this afternoon, throwing 4.2 scoreless innings while allowing just 1 hit. The pitching in this series by WVU has been absolutely lights out - they’re limited one of the best offensive teams in the nation to 3 runs and 13 hits in 18 innings.

WVU was able to tie the game in the bottom of the 5th on another RBI by Gonzalez, this one a single to right field that scored Inman.

Then the fireworks happened.

Tevin Tucker drew a leadoff walk to start the 9th inning, followed by an infield single by Tyler Doanes to put 2 runners on with nobody out. Brandon White was next and had a great at bat, and although he eventually struck out, Coach Mazey called the double steal and Tucker just made it to 3rd on time.

TTU elected to intentionally walk Hill to load the bases and set up a potential double play with just 1 out recorded and the winning run on 3rd. The Red Raiders went to their fire-throwing closer, Clayton Beeter to face Marques Inman with the game on the line. Looking for something he could hit to the outfield, Inman didn’t even have to swing the bat, as Beeter threw 4 straight balls and the Mountaineers walk-off walked the Red Raiders 4-3 to secure their 3rd consecutive series victory over a ranked opponent.

With this win, I’d be willing to bet that WVU has played themselves into a Top 25 ranking in next week's poll. We sit just 1.5 games back of the Big XII conference lead and will look for the series sweep of the Red Raiders on Sunday. That game is scheduled to begin at 1:00PM and will feature Kade Strowd on the bump, who will look to have an encore to his great start last Sunday vs. Oklahoma State.

Let’s go, Mountaineers!