Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
West Virginia
@HerdBaseball Falls Short against West Virginia
4/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Final Stats | Box Score (PDF)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Marshall (15-12) baseball fell to the West Virginia Mountaineers (15-11) in the 10th inning, 5-4, Tuesday night at Appalachian Power Park.
The Herd jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first after Corey Bird (Elkview, W.Va.) led off the game with a single to right. Bird then took second on an error at short and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by DJ Gee (Seattle). Finally, Bird crossed the plate on a wild pitch.
Joshua Shapiro (Columbus, Ohio) started on the mound and pitched the first 5.2 innings. He had a career-high nine struck outs and zero hits, with one run scored.
WVU tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the sixth, but Marshall struck back in the bottom of the inning. The Herd loaded the bases from three straight singles from Gee, Tommy Lane (Pendleton, Ore.) and Aaron Bossi (St. Louis). After a strikeout, the Mountaineer catcher threw down to third to attempt to pick off Gee at third and the ball got away from the third baseman. Gee and Lane both scored as the ball rolled into left field. Marshall led 3-1.
In the top of the eighth, WVU took advantage of two Marshall errors to score three runs and take the lead 4-3. The Herd came back in the bottom of the inning and tied the game as Bossi came in to score from a single up the middle by Tyler Ratliff (Alexandria, Va.).
Marshall had a chance to end the game in the bottom of the ninth with runners on the corners and one out. The Herd was unable to score and the game moved into extras.
The Mountaineers gained the lead in the 10th with a runner on base that took advantage of a Marshall error, and came around to put the score at 5-4.
The Herd put a runner on in the bottom of the 10th but could not find the clutch hit.
Marshall led the game with 13 hits. Bird had a team-high three hits, while Bossi, Cory Garrastazu (Miami) and Reynaldo Pastrana (Miami) each had two hits. WVU finished the game with five hits.
Patrick Muprhy (Massillon, Ohio) drops to 3-2 with the loss. Blake Smith improves to 2-0 for WVU.
COACH'S CORNER
Quote from head coach Jeff Waggoner
On the gameââ'¬Â¦
"It starts with our freshmen pitcher that did a great job, he had a no-hitter going through the sixth inning, but his pitch count was over one hundred. But he wasn't going to throw the whole, and it was time to get him out. We had every opportunity to win this game. We had first and third with one out, but wasn't able to cash in. They played hard and that's all you can ask for from a coach. We will see West Virginia again later this month and we will have to get ready for our conference game this weekend."
UP NEXT
Marshall travels to San Antonio, Texas to take on UTSA for a three-game Conference USA series, beginning on Friday at 7 p.m. (ET).
