West Virginia baseball takes down in-state rival Marshall

West Virginia baseball won the first of three games scheduled this season against in-state rival Marshall on Tuesday. WVU shut down the Thundering Herd offense with a 7-0 win.

The Mountaineer offense did most of their damage in the first three innings of the game, pushing across 6-of-7 runs early in the evening.

WVU (20-3) claimed the first of the scheduled season series with Marshall (12-13) in Morgantown -- Game Two will be on April 15 at Jack Cook Field in Huntington, and Game Three will be in Charleston, West Virginia at GoMart Ballpark on April 30.

WVU bounces back after a tough conference series loss against Arizona

The Mountaineers struggled in the first full Big 12 series of the seasons and dropped 2-of-3 games against the Wildcats. Tuesday was an opportunity for WVU to “get right” and gather some confidence before heading to Provo, Utah, for a three-game series against Big 12 opponent BYU. And that’s exactly what Tuesday’s game did for WVU.

To start the scoring for WVU, slugger Skylar King hit a sacrifice fly to give WVU a 1-0 lead early in the game, and the Mountaineers did not look back from there. Chase Swain hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second to extend the lead to 2-0 in favor of the Mountaineers. Swain’s home run was registered an 108 mph exit velocity.

The hot start gave way to a blowout and ater the first few innings of play, WVU led the Thundering Herd by a score of 6-0.

On the mound, David Hagen, Tyler Hutson (2-0), Mac Stiffler, Robby Porco, Bryant Yoak, and Ben McDougal combined to finish a shutout effort against Marshall. David Hagen got the start and went 4 strong innings, only allowing one hit and one walk. Hutson picked up the win in his two innings of work, only allowing two hits and one walk.

Stiffler, Porco, Yoak, and McDougal combined to finish the last three innings, and the only blemish across the board for the three relievers was one hit and one walk combined.

Leading the way offensively on Tuesday was Swain (2-4, two runs scored, two RBIs, and a stolen base), Armani Guzman (2-4, one run scored, and one RBI), West Virginia native Jace Rinehart (2-4, one run scored, one walk, and a stolen base), and King (1-3, two RBIs, and one run scored).

Freshman catcher Gavin Kelly had a great game behind the dish on Sunday. Kelly is starting at catcher due to Logan Sauve dealing with some injury concerns that kept him out of the game on Sunday. Kelly made another start behind home plate and made another nice defensive play, throwing behind a runner at first base in the top of the sixth inning, Kelly picked off a Thundering Herd base runner who strayed a little too far away from the bag.

Getting back into the win column was huge for WVU before their second full Big 12 series starts Thursday. The Mountaineers can head to Provo with a little more pep in their step and got the bad taste of losing out of their mouth before the BYU series.