It was a tale of two homecomings Tuesday night at Appalachian Power Park.
It was a tale of two homecomings Tuesday night at Appalachian Power Park.
Taylor Davis coaxed a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the top of the eighth as Morehead State edged West Virginia University 6-5 in the third annual Mountaineer Diamond Classic. A paid crowd of 667 attended the non-conference matchup.
Eagles coach Jay Sorg, whose team brought a 4-19 record into the game, spent part of the 1996 season in Charleston with the Alley Cats after the Cincinnati Reds made him a 15th-round draft pick in 1994.
"It's a nice win for us,'' Sorg said. "What I was happy with was I thought our team played tough. We faced some adversity and I thought we battled all the way through. When they answered we were able to answer back, and that was the big difference in the game.''
WVU senior shortstop Grant Buckner, an Elkview native and former Herbert Hoover High School standout, committed three errors and went 1-for-4.
"Definitely not the game you want to come back home and play,'' he said. "You've got to give [Morehead State] credit. They took advantage of my mistakes.
"Even though it's not the game I wanted, I had all my friends and family here and this close to home probably for the last time ever wearing a West Virginia uniform. It was fun though.''
WVU's Matt Malloy opened the bottom of the ninth with a walk and was sacrificed to second on Mark Dvoroznak's bunt. Brady Wilson flied to right field and Justin McDavid struck out to end the game.
The Mountaineers had a runner on third with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but Morehead's Luke Bainer tracked down T.J. Kuban's slicing line drive to end the inning.
WVU could have had runners at first and second with none out earlier in the eighth as Buckner led off with a single and designated hitter Jeremy Gum, who finished with two RBIs, was hit by a pitch with none out. The home plate umpire, however, ruled Gum didn't attempt to get out of the way of the pitch and called it a ball. Gum eventually hit a popup that Morehead shortstop Austin Haney dropped, but recovered in time to force Buckner at second. WVU's Ryan McBroom and T.J. Kuban grounded out and flied out, respectively, to end the inning.
"We've played hard all year, but we just didn't execute,'' said WVU coach Greg Van Zant, a Williamson native who has 11 players from West Virginia on the 33-man roster. "The umpiring did not affect the outcome of the game. There were other calls that we got that [Morehead State] didn't get. It's not always our fault. You've got to give credit to Morehead State.''
Eagles starter Noah Smallwood, who entered the contest with an 0-2 record and a 10.40 ERA, held the Mountaineers hitless until McBroom's leadoff single in the fifth.
Smallwood, a left-hander who didn't figure into the decision, allowed five runs (three earned) on four hits in 61/3 innings. WVU finished with six hits.
It was a tale of two homecomings Tuesday night at Appalachian Power Park.
Taylor Davis coaxed a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the top of the eighth as Morehead State edged West Virginia University 6-5 in the third annual Mountaineer Diamond Classic. A paid crowd of 667 attended the non-conference matchup.
Eagles coach Jay Sorg, whose team brought a 4-19 record into the game, spent part of the 1996 season in Charleston with the Alley Cats after the Cincinnati Reds made him a 15th-round draft pick in 1994.
"It's a nice win for us,'' Sorg said. "What I was happy with was I thought our team played tough. We faced some adversity and I thought we battled all the way through. When they answered we were able to answer back, and that was the big difference in the game.''
WVU senior shortstop Grant Buckner, an Elkview native and former Herbert Hoover High School standout, committed three errors and went 1-for-4.
"Definitely not the game you want to come back home and play,'' he said. "You've got to give [Morehead State] credit. They took advantage of my mistakes.
"Even though it's not the game I wanted, I had all my friends and family here and this close to home probably for the last time ever wearing a West Virginia uniform. It was fun though.''
WVU's Matt Malloy opened the bottom of the ninth with a walk and was sacrificed to second on Mark Dvoroznak's bunt. Brady Wilson flied to right field and Justin McDavid struck out to end the game.
The Mountaineers had a runner on third with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but Morehead's Luke Bainer tracked down T.J. Kuban's slicing line drive to end the inning.
WVU could have had runners at first and second with none out earlier in the eighth as Buckner led off with a single and designated hitter Jeremy Gum, who finished with two RBIs, was hit by a pitch with none out. The home plate umpire, however, ruled Gum didn't attempt to get out of the way of the pitch and called it a ball. Gum eventually hit a popup that Morehead shortstop Austin Haney dropped, but recovered in time to force Buckner at second. WVU's Ryan McBroom and T.J. Kuban grounded out and flied out, respectively, to end the inning.
"We've played hard all year, but we just didn't execute,'' said WVU coach Greg Van Zant, a Williamson native who has 11 players from West Virginia on the 33-man roster. "The umpiring did not affect the outcome of the game. There were other calls that we got that [Morehead State] didn't get. It's not always our fault. You've got to give credit to Morehead State.''
Eagles starter Noah Smallwood, who entered the contest with an 0-2 record and a 10.40 ERA, held the Mountaineers hitless until McBroom's leadoff single in the fifth.
Smallwood, a left-hander who didn't figure into the decision, allowed five runs (three earned) on four hits in 61/3 innings. WVU finished with six hits.
Morehead took the lead for good at 6-5 in the eighth when Davis drew a bases-loaded walk from WVU reliever Josh Harlow with two outs. The Eagles knotted the game at 5 in the eighth on Austin Haney's run-scoring single that was just off the glove of Buckner.
Morehead ran itself out of a bigger inning in the eighth when Luke Bainer failed to get down a suicide squeeze bunt and Austin Haney, who was coming from third base, was tagged out at home by WVU catcher Matt Malloy for the second out.
WVU scored twice in the bottom of the seventh with two outs to take a 5-4 lead.
The Mountaineers' Mark Dvoroznak tied the game at 4-all, scoring on an error on Justin McDavid's single that bounced off Morehead State first baseman Michael Fear. Brady Wilson then gave the Mountaineers the lead, scoring on a wild pitch.
Bainer went 2-for-4 with three RBIs for Morehead while Andrew Deeds, Haney and Bud Morton had two hits apiece.
Sorg, who played at Morehead, has a 63-90-1 overall record in three seasons at his alma mater.
Sorg, who played at Watt Powell Park, said he had great memories of his host family in the Capital City.
"It wasn't even a full season,'' he said. "I played the first half and a little bit of the second half, but I got hurt in the first half and kind of kept playing and ended up having surgery and going home.''
WVU's Matt Frazer, a former Nitro High standout, didn't play Tuesday. Frazer belted his first home run in college in last year's 13-11 win over Eastern Kentucky at the APP.
Reach Tommy R. Atkinson at tatkin...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-4811.
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