West Virginia Shown Mercy in Series Finale

The Mountaineers were pummeled in the series finale versus No. 3 Oklahoma State

Granville, WV - The West Virginia Mountaineers (22-12, 6-3) were mercy-ruled in eight innings 13-3 Sunday afternoon by the third-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys (26-10, 9-3). It's the worst loss WVU suffered at home since April 16, 2016, in a 15-2 decision versus Kansas State. 

"We haven't played a bad game in a long, long time, and when you play 60 games a year, you're going to play some bad games. It's hard to avoid, it's just unfortunate that we played one today." 

West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey looking on in the fifth inning.  / Christopher Hall - Sports Illustrated: West Virginia

West Virginia hurler Zach Bravo had a slow start throwing five consecutive balls, in the process walking leadoff hitter Jaxson Crull, and his first pitch over the plate, resulted in what looked to be a routine groundball over to second, slipped between the legs of Mikey Kluska, and so did the opportunity for a double play, and the Cowboys had runners at the corners. 

Jake Thompson brought in Crull with a sacrifice fly ball to right field for the game's first run. Then, David Mendham went to the opposite field for a two-run shot over left-centerfield, extending the lead, 3-0. Bravo got Nolan McLean swinging but Marcus Brown and Griffin Doersching hit back-to-back home runs as the Cowboys jumped out to a 5-0 lead. 

"Our guys showed up ready to play, we just ran into a really good hitting team that three home runs in the first inning and when you do that, it seems like it deflates everybody a little bit," said head coach Randy Mazey. "You try and crawl back into it – when it gets five to nothing, the next team to score is usually going to win the game, and they scored to extend it which made it a little tougher for us." 

Carlson Reed took the mound in the second allowed one hit through two innings, but consecutive two-out singles in the fourth set up a two-RBI double from Jake Thompson pushed the lead to seven. 

West Virginia reliever Carlson Reed delivering in a pitch in the third inning.  / Christopher Hall - Sports Illustrated: West Virginia

Oklahoma State starting pitcher Bryce Osmond threw four hitless innings before giving up a solo home run to Nathan Blasick. Osmond finished the day with a career-high 11 strikeouts, allowing three runs on three hits in 6.2 innings. 

"All of their starting pitchers were excellent. All of their pitchers out of the bullpen are excellent," said Mazey, later adding that Osmond was good but believed his hitters approach at the plate was affected by the early 5-0 deficit.  

"Some days you hit and some days you don't," continued Mazey. "He made good pitches when he had to and once you get to 5-0, guys are so excited to compete and then all of a sudden you give up five in the first and I think the at bats from the hitters were like, 'gosh this is a pretty big hill we got right here,' and we don't have experience playing bad games, so that was a little bit foreign to us, and the at-bats I didn't think were as good. 

Chase Smith and Zach Ottinger gave up a run in the fifth and sixth, respectively, as Oklahoma State grew its lead, 9-1. 

West Virginia third baseman J.J. Wetherhold fielding a slow rolling ground ball.  / Christopher Hall - Sports Illustrated: West Virginia

In the seventh, West Virginia was threatening to get back in the game after McGwire Holbrook flared a one-out double down the right field line, advanced to third on a balk before Nathan Blasick singled back up the middle, scoring Holbrook. Ben Abernathy and Grant Hussey drew back-to-back walks, loading the bases before a wild pitch scored Hussey. However, two runs are all the Mountaineers could muster to cut the deficit to six. 

The Cowboys put up four runs in the eighth. West Virginia gave up two walks and a hit batsman which gave way for a sacrifice fly, two wild pitches scored a pair of runs and an RBI single Cayden Brumbaugh gave the Cowboys a four run eighth inning as Hueston Morrill went 1-2-3 to close the eighth as the Mountaineers fall to the mercy-rule in a 13-3 decision. 

West Virginia is back in action Tuesday night as they head north to face the Pitt Panthers at PNC Park with the first pitch set for 6:30 pm. 

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