MORGANTOWN — The nation’s longest winning streak came to an end Tuesday night, as 14th-ranked WVU continued to struggle on the road against Penn State.
The Nittany Lions held on for a 3-2 victory inside Medlar Field, with the Mountaineers (34-5) stranding Grant Hussey at second base in the ninth inning as the potential tying run.
The Mountaineers are 1-4 all-time at Medlar Field.
WVU’s 14-game winning streak came to an end, as Penn State (25-14) got a surprising strong effort from starting pitcher Mason Butash.
The sophomore right-hander entered the game with an 8.84 ERA, but went 4 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball to pick up his third win of the season. He allowed four hits and also struck out four.
Penn State took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning from a solo home run by Jack Porter and extended that lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning, after Bryce Molinaro drove in two runs with a base hit.
WVU pitcher Ben Hudson took the loss. He went 2 2/3 innings with the only run he allowed being the solo shot. He allowed four hits and one walk.
This one fell on the Mountaineers’ offense, which went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and tallied just seven hits overall.
WVU did score two runs in the seventh inning on Spencer Barnett’s two-run home run, but went down in order in the eighth inning and left Hussey stranded at second in the ninth.
Barnett and Skylar King each had two hits, but WVU still was held to its lowest scoring total of the season.
About the only good news from the game was WVU dropped only one spot in the RPI ratings to No. 15 following the loss.
The Mountaineers will return to the road for Big 12 play when they travel to UCF for a three-game series that begins at 6 p.m. Friday.
