The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
West Virginia
West Virginia defeats Baseball, 6-3, in 10 innings
04.21.2013 | Baseball
April 21, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas - Jacob Rice led the West Virginia offense during the Big 12 series finale Sunday, going 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBI as the West Virginia Mountaineers earned a 6-3 win in 10 innings against the Texas Longhorns at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
Billy Fleming went 3-for-5, including an RBI single in the 10th that broke the tie before Rice hit a two-run single to cap the scoring. Corey Walter picked up the win for West Virginia (23-18, 6-6) with 4 2/3 innings of two-hit ball, allowing one unearned run with five walks and four strikeouts while Pascal Paul retired three in a row in the 10th after the Longhorns (21-17, 5-10) had put their first two runners on base.
The Mountaineers were the first to jump on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth with a run from Taylor Munden after he doubled to lead off the inning and later scored on Ryan Tuntland's RBI groundout. The Longhorns quickly matched the run in the bottom of the fourth after Mark Payton tripled to right field and scored on Ty Marlow's sacrifice fly.
West Virginia regained the lead in the fifth as Rice hit a solo homer to left for the 2-1 advantage. Brooks Marlow singled in the bottom of the fifth, advancing to second on the fielding error by Rice in left field. Weston Hall and pinch-hitter Erich Weiss to load the bases before C.J Hinojosa lifted a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game. Hall gave Texas a 3-2 lead after a passed ball scored him from third.
West Virginia tied it up in the top of the sixth when Ryan McBroom scored on a single from Matt Frazer. Texas had runners at first and second with two outs, but Alex Silver flied out to center. The Longhorns had another chance in the ninth, but Walter was able to get Hall to ground into a 1-6-3 double play to send the game to extra innings.
In the top of the 10th, the Mountaineers used three walks and three singles against Corey Knebel (3-3) to produce three runs. Knebel would finish with three runs on five hits allowed in 3 1/3 innings.
Texas concludes its five-game homestand this Tuesday (April 23) with a 6 p.m. game against Houston at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. The game will be televised on Longhorn Network with radio on AM 1300 The Zone. Gametracker live stats will be available on TexasSports.com with live Twitter updates @Texas_Baseball.
Notes: Mark Payton recorded his sixth triple of the season and 12th in his career...Payton needs one more triple to break into the Texas' all-time career top ten for triples (13)...Payton has reached base safely in 27 straight games...Texas is now 1-2 this season in extra innings.
WVU 000-111-000-3---6-11-2 TEXAS 000-120-000-0---3-4-1
Records: Texas (21-17, 5-10), West Virginia (23-18, 6-6) WP - Walter (3-4) LP - Knebel (3-3) S - Paul (6) T - 2:58 ATT - 5,478
Means, Walter (5), Paul (10) and Filauro. Thornhill, Knebel (7), T. Marlow (10) and Felts, Montalbano (9).
Post-Game Quotes
Texas head coach Augie Garrido
On today's game: It's difficult with the hope of yesterday and the hopes we had of that game as a momentum changer, a confidence builder, and I really did think we had our chances to win that game in the eighth. I think we could've won the game there and I think we should've won the game in the bottom of the ninth had we executed properly and that didn't happen. The bottom line is when we gave him the 10th inning...we extended Corey Knebel farther than he has gone at any time this year and they took advantage at that with some very good hitting. So it becomes bitterly disappointing and very difficult to lose this third game and not capitalize on the opportunities we had with the momentum of what we saw yesterday. Again, we had our opportunities I think at the bottom of the eighth and bottom of the ninth.
On what he told to Corey Knebel after today: He is still good. Your short relief pitcher, for the most part, we did that with him before last year some but this has been a rockier season for him. Putting him in high-pressure situations and extended situations isn't the same thing as when he was dominating all year long like he was last year. That is why I say that because he hasn't been there this year and this year is much different for him than last year was.
On thoughts about bringing Erich Weiss back: We thought about bringing him off the bench with the idea in mind that we think Madison Carter is a great player and when they switched to the right-handed pitcher that was when we went with Erich in a key situation to try and drive in that run and they did pitch around him. They did do a good job of not letting Erich of Mark Payton beat them. They pitched around them a lot, they kept balls out of the strike zone a lot and our guys actually had pretty good patience at the plate, we just didn't barrel up the ball.
Junior right fielder Mark Payton
On how bad this loss feels: It is probably the worst one because we had our chances to win the game in the eighth and the ninth, but we didn't get the big hit.
On changes in momentum from yesterday to today: It is baseball and we try to limit them these days and we have had too many of them and it has got to get turned around pretty quick.
On thoughts of how today's game turned out: We have had our ups and, of course we have had our downs, we just have to be more consistent at the plate. Our pitching threw lights out all weekend. Everybody that towed the rubber was lights out so it is our job as the offense to pick them up.
