The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
33-19, 0
West Virginia
31-21, 0
Baseball rallies for 6-2 win over West Virginia on Friday night
05.19.2017 | Baseball
Texas was buoyed by a three-hit night from Zane Gurwitz and seven strong innings from sophomore right-handed pitcher Nolan Kingham in the comeback win.
AUSTIN, Texas—Despite trailing 2-0 after five innings, Texas Baseball (33-120, 10-11 Big 12) rallied for a 6-2 comeback win over West Virginia on Friday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
West Virginia (31-21, 11-1) picked up the first run of the ballgame off Nolan Kingham in the second inning thanks to a leadoff double and an RBI single. The Mountaineers added another off Kingham in the top of the fifth as a result of three consecutive one-out singles, but that'd be all for WVU off the Texas right-hander.
Kingham (8-4) battled on the hill for Texas, limiting the damage over seven innings of work. The sophomore allowed just two runs on 10 hits and one walk while striking out six in the ballgame.
The offense behind Kingham struggled for the first five frames off WVU right-hander BJ Myers (4-3) as they were unable to get anything going.
In the sixth, however, Texas broke through.
With one away in the inning, Travis Jones hustled and reached on a throwing error by the Mountaineer shortstop to give the Longhorns a baserunner. Kacy Clemens then followed with his first of two walks on the night before Bret Boswell drove a 1-2 offering into right field to plate Jones and cut the deficit to 2-1. A batter later, Clemens would come around to score on a wild pitch to knot the game at 2-2.
In the seventh, Texas rallied once again. Michael Cantu opened the inning with a walk before Tyler Rand pinch-ran. David Hamilton followed with a bunt single to give the Longhorns speed on the base paths.
Patrick Mathis executed a fake bunt swing to drive a pitch up the middle to plate Rand and give the Longhorns their first lead of the night, 3-2, with no outs in the inning. Kody Clemens then lifted a sacrifice fly to extend the Texas lead to 4-2 before Travis Jones took the first pitch he saw into left field for an RBI single, putting Texas up 5-2 after seven.
Lefty Nick Kennedy entered and tossed a perfect 1-2-3 eighth inning and Texas added an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning to make it 6-2 for Beau Ridgeway. Ridgeway entered and shut the Mountaineers down in order in the ninth to seal the win for the Longhorns.
Texas and West Virginia will continue their series Saturday afternoon with a 1 p.m. CT start.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Kingham, Nolan (8-4)
L: Myers, BJ (4-3)
Batting:
2B: Gray, K. 1 ; Hill, D. 1
RBI: Gonzalez, I. 1 ; Austin, C. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hill, D. 1 ; White, B. 1
CS: Austin, C. 1
Batting:
2B: Boswell, Bret 1
RBI: Mathis, Patrick 1 ; Clemens, Kody 1 ; Jones, Travis 1 ; Boswell, Bret 1 ; Hamilton, David 1
SH: Reynolds, Ryan 1
SF: Clemens, Kody 1 ; Hamilton, David 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Mathis, Patrick 1 ; Jones, Travis 1 ; Clemens, Kacy 1 ; Gurwitz, Zane 1 ; Rand, Tyler 1 ; Hamilton, David 1
