MORGANTOWN — Looking at the box score, West Virginia baseball’s win over BYU might’ve seemed close, but the Mountaineers were out in front most of the game and were comfortable.
With the cushion from the Mountaineers nine hits, Dawson Montesa and the rest of the pitching staff held off BYU’s homers to pick up the win, 7-4, in the first game of the series. WVU moved to 14-3 on the season and gained its third conference win. BYU fell to 10-10 on the year, and 2-2 in conference.
Game 2 is set for March 20 at 2 p.m. at Kendrick Family Ballpark and will be streamed on ESPN+. Game 3 is March 21 at 12:30 p.m.
“Always nice to start a series off with a win,” head coach Steve Sabins said. “Opening up conference play with a win against a really good team is exciting.”
Gavin Kelly provided some much-needed comfort, with BYU slowly closing the gap in the sixth. Kelly hit a deep shot over the left field fence for a two-run home run, putting the Mountaineers up 7-1. Kelly’s 417-foot homer was his third on the season. The homer was Kelly’s only hit of the game, but he led the team in RBIs.
Kelly’s homer capped off a three-run inning, with shortstop Matt Iniech hitting an RBI single, too, extending the Mountaineers’ lead after Montesa gave up a homer in the top of the fifth.
BYU only made it closer at the top of the ninth on another homer, 7-4. Luckily, Kelly knocked one out of the park.
Montesa gave up two of the three home runs from BYU, but those two homers were the only real blemishes in an impressive sixth start. Sabins came out for a mound visit, but had confidence in his transfer arm.
“He came out and said, ‘Solo homers don’t win games. This is your inning.'” Montesa said. “He just gave me a chance to breathe and collect myself.”
Montesa finally got in the win column after he hadn’t had a win since his February 27th start against Kennesaw State. He has been handed the loss in his last two starts. Montesa showed command on the mound and threw 64 strikes out of his 101 pitches, over the course of seven innings. He was hyped after his seventh strikeout of the game and finished the day allowing three hits, hitting two batters, but he didn’t have a walk. He walked six batters in his last start against Baylor.
“Just confidence in myself,” Montesa said. “I know I can go out there and throw strikes. The Baylor game was a fluke. Just going out there with confidence knowing you can blow by hitters is like the best thing you could do.”
BYU is a big bat team. Before the game, the Cougars were top 20 in college baseball with over 30 homers. Montesa let up the two homers, and then with one out in the ninth, Bryant Yoak gave up a two-run homer, making it 7-4.
“I believe that this is the best offense that we’ve faced with the most thump,” Sabins said. “It’s very easy because of the home run numbers, or giving up more home runs to maybe get timid of the zone. The fact that he was able to give up a couple of homers and still just continue to attack.”
WVU’s offense provided Montesa with some early run support in the second inning. With Armani Guzman on second base, big bat Matthew Graveline roped one to the outfield for a double, scoring Guzman. Graveline advanced to third on a throwing error. Tyrus Hall scored Graveline on a single up the middle, making it 2-0 Mountaineers. Hall later scored on a passed ball, and Paul Schoenfeld singled to score another, 4-0.
“The second inning offensively, probably the best inning we’ve pieced together this season,” Sabins said. “I just think the grittiness of the at-bats. It was one quality at bat after another.”
Iniech, Schoenfeld and Hall all had two hits on the day, helping to the total of nine on Thursday night. WVU took advantage of the poor BYU pitching and worked eight walks. BYU went through five arms.
Sabins went to Bryson Thacker in the eighth. Thacker hasn’t pitched since Maryland, and hasn’t pitched a lot in his last two outings. The left-hander pitched a complete inning, striking out two. Yoak had the two-run homer and allowed another hit. Sabins went to freshman David Perez to close out the game. Perez struck out the last two batters.
“Made it interesting there,” Sabins joked. “Had to get the juices flowing.”
