West Virginia’s Tyrus Hall chopped a tiebreaking, two-run single over a drawn-in infield in the eighth inning as the No. 16-seeded Mountaineers won in their College World Series debut by beating Troy 7-5 on Friday afternoon in Omaha, Neb.
Hall, the No. 9 batter in the order, went 2-for-3 including a double, four RBIs, one run and a walk. He bounced the single over the first baseman to break a 5-all tie and help the Big 12 school advance to Sunday night’s game against the North Carolina-Ole Miss winner later Friday.
Left-hander Ben McDougal faced one batter and earned the save by getting Jimmy Janicki on a foul fly to end it following Ian Korn, who allowed one run on two hits over six innings of relief behind starter Chansen Cole.
Sean Smith (solo homer) and Brodie Kresser (two runs) each went 2-for-4 for the Mountaineers (46-15).
Janicki homered and doubled in a two-hit game. Sean Darnell notched two doubles, and Drew Nelson had two hits for Troy (38-31), which lost for the first time in seven games and will face the loser of North Carolina-Ole Miss.
Reliever Zach Crotchfelt took the loss.
The Mountaineers led after leadoff hitter Armani Guzman reached on an error in the first inning and advanced to third on a strikeout. With two outs, the Big 12’s steals leader completed a straight steal of home.
After Troy’s Jabe Boroff’s RBI single in the second, Hall put West Virginia back up 3-1 with a two-run double off the wall in left-center.
The Trojans chased Cole with three runs in the third as Steven Meier, Nelson and Darnell produced RBIs, but Smith’s solo homer knotted it 4-all through three innings.
After Guzman’s RBI double put the Mountaineers up 5-4 in the fourth, Janicki slugged a tying homer, a 430-footer to left, for his 20th long ball to make it 5-5 in the seventh.
–Field Level Media
