GRANVILLE — Steve Sabins just may have been the smartest guy inside Kendrick Family Ballpark on Saturday.
He was certainly the angriest.
The WVU baseball head coach got tossed by first-base umpire Jeff Spisak in the top of the first inning for arguing a balk call.
In the events that followed, Sabins got to stay warm and comfy during a 56-minute rain delay, as well as not having to witness No. 13 WVU’s 6-4 loss against Texas Tech.
Here’s how it went down: The Red Raiders (16-26, 11-11 Big 12) already led 1-0 and had runners on first and third when Damian Bravo broke for second base, as WVU pitcher Griffin Kirn was beginning his delivery to the plate.
Kirn took a slight step towards home, which is part of his normal routine, but then stepped off the mound, but did not make a throw.
Spisak called a balk, which scored Logan Hughes from third for a 2-0 lead. It also brought Sabins out of the dugout to argue the call. He went back into the dugout for a moment, before getting into another disagreement with home plate umpire Rick Allen.
That prompted the ejection from Spisak and Sabins was escorted back to WVU’s locker room in his first ejection as the Mountaineers head coach.
The rest of the Mountaineers (37-7, 16-4) didn’t get the first game of the doubleheader off, although one may think so according to the stats.
Against a Texas Tech pitching staff that’s allowed the second most hits and owns the second-highest team ERA in the Big 12, the Mountaineers instead made the Red Raiders look like the 1995 Atlanta Braves through the first six innings.
The second game on Saturday wasn’t completed until after press time.
WVU was held to nine hits in Game 1, which was carried over from Friday’s rainout. Six of those nine hits came in the seventh inning or later.
If not for Grant Hussey’s solo home run to lead off the third inning, the Mountaineers would have faced a larger deficit in the seventh inning when the Mountaineers finally showed some life.
Chase Swain scored a run on a fielder’s choice and Skylar King followed that with a two-run home run to the bullpen in left field.
Otherwise, WVU’s offense was basically nonexistent.
Bravo sealed the victory with a bases-loaded double in the seventh inning to give the Red Raiders a 6-1 lead. Texas Tech’s junior outfielder ended up with four hits in the game.
WVU, meanwhile, has lost two in a row for the first time this season, and it’s been a couple of weeks since the Mountaineers played like a team ranked in the top 15 of the country.
The first of the two losses came to in-state rival Marshall on Wednesday, in Charleston. The Thundering Herd scored on a throwing error in the bottom of the ninth inning to win that game.
The hangover carried over against the Red Raiders who came into the game after losing two midweek games against Texas Rio Grande Valley.
WVU did make a run of it in the ninth inning off Texas Tech reliever Lukas Pirko.
Hussey and Michael Perazza hit consecutive one-out singles. After King struck out, Logan Sauve loaded the bases with a walk.
Kyle West flew out to right field to end the game.
