KYLE WEST

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — Sometimes you’ve got to use a little smoke and mirrors to win a baseball game and West Virginia used up its season limit on Friday night, regaining its winning ways by beating UCF, 4-1, in Orlando, Fla.

You just won’t see many games like this one; a game where WVU was outhit, 9-1, yet won by three runs.

Honest. It happened as the Mountaineers won a game with only one hit for just the second time in school history, having won a 1-0 decision over Duquesne in 1992.

The hit was a leadoff single by Kyle West in the seventh inning, the inning in which the Mountaineers broke a 1-1 tie and took a lead they would not give up as the bullpen walked a tightrope before finally locking down their 35th victory against five defeats.

So how do you score four runs on one hit, especially without the hit driving in any of the runs?

Well, it begins with UCF hitting you more than you hit them. While the Mountaineers had only the West single, Knights’ pitchers hit six — count ’em 1-2-3-4-5-6 — batters with pitches.

Skylar King, the WVU leadoff batter, was hit by a pitch three times, which tied a single game record for the school … a painful record to set. Also wearing bruises from pitches that hit them in the game were Grant Hussey, Brodie Kresser and Gavin Kelly.

With no offense to speak off, the Mountaineers needed some defense and it was provided through three double plays, two of them were the result of runners being doubled off on line drives.

And then there was the bullpen. Left-handed starter Griffin Kirn pitched 4.2 innings and gave up four hits and one unearned run while Reese Bassinger, who won to go to 5-0, Chase Meyer and Carson Estridge, who earned his fourth save with an inning of work, wound their way in and out of trouble with 4.1 innings of relief.

They gave up five hits, walked three and hit a batter, but had what it took when they needed it.

In the seventh inning, protecting a 4-1 lead, Meyer allowed UCF to load the bases with none out then struck out a pair of batters and got a force play to escape, screaming and pumping both fists through the air.

Then in the 9th, after Meyer had walked the leadoff man, Steve Sabins brought in Estridge. His first pitch hit the first batter he faced, bringing the tying run to the plate, but he dug deep, getting a strikeout and game-ending ground ball double play for WVU’s 12th straight Big 12 victory.

The pitchers were in charge right from the start. In fact, the only thing being hit in the early innings seemed to be WVU hitters. The Mountaineer leadoff man Skylar King, who was hit by a pitch twice from Camden Wicker. Then with one out in the top of the fifth, Wicker plucked both Hussey and Kresser.

A 6-foot-7 right-hander, Wicker was baffling the Mountaineers with the soft stuff, almost lulling them to sleep. They were hitless there in the fifth when they finally got themselves in position to mount a threat on the consecutive hit batters.

Wicker appeared perplexed and walked Gavin Kelly to load the bases with one out, the Mountaineers now seemingly sitting on a big inning despite not having a base hit.

But the big inning died a strange death, although WVU did work a 1-0 lead out of it. Spencer Barnett lofted a fly ball to right centerfield, which had Hussey tagging up and scoring from third and Kresser advancing to third … sort of.

UCF said, “not so fast.” They appealed that Kresser, for some unknown reason, had left second base early and after a rather lengthy review — lengthy in part because the replay equipment is not on the field and the umpires had to trace up through the stands to see a replay.

Sure enough, and while it was close, Kresser was called out on the appeal at second.

The run counted for a 1-0 advantage but the out counted, too, so it was a double play and the inning was over.

At that point, the Mountaineers had a 1-0 lead without a hit but was getting some nifty pitching from starter Griffin Kirn, who had given up three hits but had not hurt himself with such indiscretions as walks or hitting batters.

An WVU error would change all that. With two out and no one on, a throwing error by Kresser allowed Braden Calise to reach first base on what should have been the final out. That was followed by Kirn hitting Dylan King in the hip with a 3-1 pitch, bringing leadoff batter DeAmez Ross to the plate.

He wasted no time singling to right center, tying the score and sending WVU coach Steve Sabins to the mound to bring Bassinger in from the bullpen to try and plug the leak, which he did, retiring Antonio Jimenez on a soft fly to right.

WVU got the go-ahead run in the seventh when King got his single, was run for by Armani Guzman, who eventually came around and scored on Brodie Kresser’s sacrifice fly.

In the eighth, WVU got two insurance runs without a hit, Sam White driving one in on a sacrifice fly and Jace Rinehart the other with an infield out.