WVU baseball sweeps Texas Longhorns

The WVU baseball team earned a sweep of Texas at just the right time in the season. The Mountaineers gained some much-needed momentum as the regular season will soon draw to a close.

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The Mountaineers outscored the Longhorns, 34-14, in the three games series. WVU beat Texas, 11-2, on Friday; 14-7, on Saturday and closed out the series with a 9-5 decision on Sunday.

West Virginia got it done on the mound, at the plate and in the field with an all-around solid performance in all three games. Including the sweep, the WVU baseball team has now won five-straight games. Plus, the Mountaineers are winners in eight of their last 10 contests.

"“We took away the strength of their team, their three starting pitchers are as good as anyone in the league,” WVU coach Randy Mazey said. “We scored early in all three games, so that neutralized everything that they’re about, the way we came out and took the game to them. (Aside from the first two innings Friday, there wasn’t) any point this entire weekend where we didn’t have a lead. That enables you to be looser, a little more aggressive. That was a great weekend for us.”"

The key for the Mountaineers was getting ahead early and often. They did not allow any game to become a dogfight; once they were in control they added on and never let up.

That’s the mark of a good team, and West Virginia is certainly playing like a contender in one of the toughest conferences in the nation. The Mountaineers improved to 11-9 in the Big 12 and stand at 27-19 overall.

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The sweep of Texas jolted West Virginia into the upper half of the conference standings. Only Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and TCU have better conference records. TCU and WVU have matching 11 wins, while OSU only has one more victory with 12. Texas Tech is the class of the conference with a mark of 17-4.

The Mountaineers can certainly continue to make their run at the top of the conference standings, though there are only eight games left in the regular season. Of those, only three are against conference competition and those games come at Texas Tech on May 19-21.

However, the way the WVU baseball team played over the weekend, the Mountaineers can hang with anybody.

West Virginia pounded out 38 hits in the series against Texas and had a .369 batting average.

While the hitters did most of the damage, the Mountaineers on the mound kept the Longhorns at bay only allowing 22 hits over the three games, which equated to a .218 batting average.

After tallying three impressive victories, West Virginia holds a 8-4 record all-time against the Longhorns in baseball. It was only the third sweep of a Big 12 opponent since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 in 2013.

The WVU baseball team will now take on border-rival Maryland on Tuesday.