GRANVILLE — When Steve Sabins announced West Virginia baseball’s pitching rotation for the week, it looked a little different. Maxx Yehl is starting Friday and Chansen Cole was a go for Saturday; that looks normal. But on a short week, with Thursday being the first game, Sabins went with relief pitcher Ian Korn as his Thursday starter.
Korn didn’t disappoint, making his second start of the season, and pitched six scoreless innings to help the No. 9 Mountaineers win a 2-0 over TCU in Game 1 of the series, extending WVU’s win streak to eight. The Mountaineers moved to 36-12 on the year and 20-8 in the Big 12. The Horned Frogs went 32-19 and 16-12 in the conference. Game 2 is on Friday, May 15, with a 6:30 p.m. start.
“Great opening night game,” Sabins said. “Korn transferred here for a reason, and it’s because he wanted to get better. He wanted to have a pro opportunity, and he wanted to win championships. He wanted to test himself at the highest level. That’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s a top-three pitcher in this league statistically.”
It was a big spot for Korn. WVU needs to win a couple of games to catch Kansas for the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament, and to solidify its chances at hosting an NCAA Tournament Regional for the first time since 2019. Korn did his part.
He usually comes out of the pen, and this was just his second start of the season. The last time Korn started was when the Mountaineers were down a pitcher with Yehl recovering from an injury. Korn pitched four and a third innings against Cincinnati in the only game WVU won.
Korn showed starter-like command, which is what he displayed out of the pen. He didn’t have a base runner in the first two innings. Korn said in those two, he didn’t even have his best stuff. Over the next few innings, Korn said he threw more with “conviction.”
“I got kind of lucky with the baseball gods,” Korn said. “There were a few balls barreled straight to guys. Maybe, metrically, the pitches were fine, but they weren’t thrown aggressively with conviction.”
He finally got into some trouble, having runners on first and third later in his start. But Korn stayed collected and worked his way out of it without allowing a run. Korn threw the most innings he’s ever pitched this season, struck out six batters and didn’t let up a run.
Korn didn’t change anything up with his normal routine, and wasn’t given very much notice that he would be starting.
“I try to keep the main thing the main thing,” Korn said. “Doesn’t matter the role, what inning I’m throwing in. It’s just filling up the zone with multiple pitches and trusting the defense with getting outs. It may change because you have to get through five, six, seven innings, but if you go out there and you don’t let the coach take the ball from you, then you’re golden.”
With Korn dealing, WVU just had to tally a few runs to take the game. Sean Smith doubled in the second inning on a shot to right center. Matthew Graveline traded places with Smith on a ball hit down the left field line, giving WVU back-to-back doubles. Brodie Kresser hit a sacrifice fly to score Graveline, and WVU had a 2-0 lead.
That was it from the offense, and the scoring as a whole. Despite winning, the Mountaineers were outhit by TCU 7-4. Gavin Kelly kept his bat hot and had a hit, and Ben Lumsden had a hit that just caught the foul line. He started in right field for Brock Wills for the second straight game. Wills had been battling an illness.
The Horned Frogs’ pitching staff of Tommy LaPour and Walter Quinn struck out nine WVU batters.
“[TCU’s pitchers] are gross,” Sabins said. “Tommy LaPour was at Wichita State, transferred to TCU, and was probably the most sought-after pitcher in the country. High-level guy that will probably play baseball for a long time. Then the reliever that came in was gross.”
After Korn’s six innings, Carson Estridge came in relief. He worked through some base traffic, too, but he held the Horned Frogs scoreless as well. Estridge pitched the rest of the game and struck out two. The two pitchers combined for another Mountaineers’ shutout and didn’t walk a batter. It was the fifth time this season the staff hadn’t walked a batter.
Yehl is on the mound in Game 2 to secure the final series of the season. He pitched a complete game in his last time out, his best outing.
“This year we have a lot more depth,” Estridge said. “There’s so many guys that we have that haven’t pitched yet that are dominant pitchers on any other team. We have such a deep pitching staff.”
