Stormy weather delayed the opening round of NCAA Tournament Regional action for West Virginia baseball on Friday, and when play got underway, that delay came with a slow start at the plate for the Mountaineers.
And when opponent Kentucky jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, WVU fans who have watched their team drop seven games in their last nine outings likely assumed the program's late-season slump was going to result in the team going down a game in the double-elimination bracket.
What the Mountaineers showed, however, is that they're a quite resilient team -- despite the fact that a slow start to postseason play following such struggles over the past few weeks might mentally wreck a lesser team, the Mountaineers bounced back to string together three runs to tie the game entering the final inning, before a Brodie Kresser double and an Armani Guzman sacrifice fly walked off the Wildcats and gave WVU a 4-3 win.
The Mountaineers didn't play a perfect game by any means -- they gave up a pair of fielding errors that led to unearned runs for Kentucky, and went 0-for-5 at the plate with baserunners in scoring position. But by the end of contest, they were able to walk away and continue forward in the winner's bracket.
The Mountaineers outhit Kentucky 7-5, with six different players tallying a hit for WVU -- the best performance of the day came from Armani Guzman, who has played in all but one game this season but made just his 21st start of the season. Guzman went 2-for-3 at the plate, and also tallied an RBI on his late-game sacrifice fly that drove home Kresser's winning run. Guzman also recorded a stolen base and a run of his own.
Griffin Kirn earned the start for the Mountaineers on the mound, and pitched 7.1 innings while tallying seven strikeouts and allowing five hits and three runs. Reese Bassinger served as his relief for the final 1.2 innings of play and was awarded the win for WVU, tossing one strikeout and allowing no hits during his time on the mound.
WVU will advance to face the winner of USC Upstate and Clemson, who will play tonight at 7:30 PM.