RECAP: Baseball Advances to Big 12 Championship final, Beat West Virginia 4-3

Man what a game. The Cowboys were able to squeeze this one out against West Virginia and come out on top 4-3 in a 10 inning ball game. And boy was it in dramatic fashion.

West Virginia struck first on a sacrifice fly from Jackson Cramer to bring in Darius Hill in the bottom of the fourth inning to make it a 1-0 WVU ballgame.

Then, enter a mister Garrett McCain in the sixth:

This was the start of what would be a great day for McCain. This kid is good. Did exactly what needed to be done in this situation.

McCain didn’t take all the credit though. giving praise to freshman Ryan Cash who had some good at bats to give McCain opportunities to hit.

In the bottom of the sixth, a wild pitch from Cole Hearrean to Darius Hill brought in Ivan Gonzalez to bring the Mountaineers within one.

Freshman shortstop Cameron Dobbs had a gorgeous play in the bottom of the 7th:

Then there was a tornado siren delay, yes you heard that right a tornado siren delay. Luckily it was just a test (because Oklahoma) and after about three minutes, they carried on with baseball.

The Mountaineers were looking for a rally in the bottom of the ninth, and they almost got it. Jimmy Galusky had an RBI single to bring in Riley Troutt and tie the ball game. Luckily that was the only damage done as the game went into extras.

Then Garrett McCain did it again in the top of the tenth to make it 4-3:

He leads the Big 12 with his batting average of .382 and today he acted like it. He was a clutch performer getting the Cowboys’ only runs on the board.

One of the big issues the Cowboys had today is scoring with RISP. They had lots of opportunities to blow this game out but couldn’t get it done. A win is a win but other teams aren’t going to make some of the mistakes that WVU made today.

Pitching wise this was a battle, which is a bit of surprise at the end of a tournament like this. In the end, The Pokes’ day of rest proved to be good for them and they prevailed.

Cowboy starter Joe Lienhard pitched 5 and ¹⁄₃ innings giving up two runs on five hits, two walks, two errors and had two strikeouts.

Cole Hearrean came in to relieve facing two batters where he struck out his first batter and then threw a wild pitch to his second batter to bring in a run. That would be his day as Jake Cowan came in to relieve.

Cowan would come in and face a batter that hit a fly out to end the sixth inning.

Trey Cobb came in for the seventh where he pitched 1 ²⁄₃ innings pitching a perfect seventh and giving up one hit in the eighth after coming in a bit earlier than usual.

Carson Teel closed pitching 2 ¹⁄₃ innings giving up two hits and the run that would send the game into extras. Teel would earn the win and improve to 5-4 on the season.

Mountaineer starting pitcher Kade Strawd pitched 5 ²⁄₃ innings giving up two runs on three hits. Strawd had two errors committed behind him and walked five batters.

Jackson Sigman came in for relief and gave up a hit a run, an error and a walk to the two batters he faced.

After that his day was done and Shane Ennis would come in and pitch 3 ¹⁄₃ innings where he gave up one hit and two walks.

Riley Troutt would come in and earn the loss, going to 1-1 on the season. Troutt gave up two hits, a run, an error and a walk in his inning pitched.

The Cowboys will face the winner of the Texas/TCU game at 4 p.m. in the championship game Sunday at 1 p.m.