Kentucky wins – West Virginia matched Kentucky point-for-point late, but a first-inning exit for ace Maxx Yehl and a string of costly mistakes helped the Wildcats take an 11-9 win at Kendrick Family Ballpark. WVU, now 40-15, will try to avoid elimination Sunday at noon agains
GRANVILLE, W.Va. — West Virginia didn’t quit. Not after the first jolt, not after the deficit got heavy, not after the game kept flipping back and forth.
On a night the Mountaineers kept coming back, the Wildcats still found enough gaps to win 11-9 at Kendrick Family Ballpark and move within one victory of taking the Morgantown Regional.
WVU coach Steve Sabins said the team’s response mattered as much as anything.
“For our team to bounce back and be able to tie that game showed real resiliency,” Sabins said. “These guys keep playing. Couldn’t be more impressed with the grit we showed. Didn’t play our best game. The effort and intensity was there, but overall, sloppy game.”
Kentucky struck early against WVU ace Maxx Yehl. In the first inning, the Wildcats worked their way to him, and Sabins confirmed Yehl left with an injury after recording two outs across 36 pitches.
“Maxx left the game with an injury. We don’t know what that is,” Sabins said. “Haven’t talked to the trainer. At that point, trying to make decisions that are in the best interest of the team.”
Before WVU even got its footing, it went down in order against UK starting pitcher Nate Harris to start the contest.
Kentucky then piled on in the home-to-away swing of the opening frame. Leadoff hitter Jayce Tharnish worked a walk after an eight-pitch battle. and Tyler Bell reached on a Brodie Kresser error that would’ve likely turned into a double play otherwise. With the bases loaded and one out, Ethan Hindle drove in two with a single to center. Hudson Brown was thrown out at third on the play.
Braxton VanCleave followed with a two-run home run that cleared the right field fence. After Yehl hit Carson Hansen with a pitch, his outing ended.
Wildcats coach Nick Mingione said the early plan was simple: get a look at the ace before he settles in.
“I knew we’d have our hands fall. Sometimes to get an ace, you have to get him in the first,” Mingione said.
The Mountaineers tried to stop the bleeding, but Kentucky kept finding ways to stretch the lead. In the second inning, West Virginia’s Sean Smith reached third base with one out, yet WVU didn’t score. By the bottom of that inning. the deficit had grown to six. helped by Luke Lawrence’s run-scoring double and Hindle’s fielder’s choice that brought Bell in with the sixth run.
Still, WVU didn’t fade. Gavin Kelly sparked the third inning with a two-run home run to left.
A two-out rally in the fourth pulled West Virginia closer. It began when Ben Lumsden singled. Tyrus Hall split the gap in right-center with a run-scoring double to make it 6-3. After Hall advanced to third on a wild pitch, he scored the Mountaineers’ fourth run via a balk.
Harris was lifted for Ryan Mullan during the inning, but Mullan walked and hit the only two batters he faced. Jack Sams relieved and walked Sean Smith to force in a run. Sams then induced an inning-ending fly ball to shallow left on a 2-0 offering to Matthew Graveline. keeping Kentucky’s advantage at one.
“You can never underestimate the importance of one run,” Mingione said, “and that’s denying it or getting it.”
Then the game tied itself.
In the fifth, Armani Guzman’s leadoff walk led to him eventually stealing third base. The throw down landed in left field, letting Guzman cross the plate and tie the matchup at 6.
Kentucky’s two runs came back fast. Kresser made a second error to start the home half of the fifth, and it loomed large when Owen Jenkins, the No. 9 hitter, hit a two-out, two-run single off Reese Bassinger. Bassinger had struck out Caeden Cloud with the bases loaded in the previous at bat.
In that same stretch, Guzman chased down an errant throw that got away in the infield and fired home to Kelly, who applied a tag on Carson Hansen to prevent the Wildcats from leading by more than two runs.
“Nothing really catches him off guard,” Sabins said of Guzman.
Kelly then gave West Virginia the lead it was chasing in the sixth. He led off with his second home run of the game and his 15th this season, trimming Kentucky’s advantage to one.
By the seventh, the Mountaineers evened it again. Tyrus Hall doubled to right to score Guzman, who had reached on a double to start the frame. The game was knotted at 8 entering the eighth.
Kentucky’s bullpen held. With the score even, UK reliever Jack Bennett retired Kelly, Paul Schoenfeld and Smith in order, then made sure the next inning brought an answer.
The Wildcats did get it.
In the bottom of the eighth, Jenkins was hit by a pitch and stole second before moving to third on a Tharnish infield single. Bell was also hit by a pitch, loading the bases with one out. Lawrence drove in the go-ahead run with a single to right that scored one.
Left-handed Ben McDougal came in to pitch, but Brown greeted him with a two-run single to right for an 11-8 lead.
Lawrence later reflected on playing through pain, telling the room exactly why this win meant so much to the group.
“I couldn’t do it without this whole team and staff,” said Lawrence, who played through injury. “Our training staff did an unbelievable job last night and this morning with me. When I came out yesterday, every single guy in that dugout had my back and willed me through today.”
The ninth brought one more bite from West Virginia. A two-out error from Cloud at third base allowed Graveline to score, and it sent the tying run to the plate. Sabins went to Zahir Barjam pinch hitting for Hall, but Barjam lifted a fly ball to left for the final out.
“Barjam has legitimate power and really good bat-to-ball skill,” Sabins said. “In those moments, trusting in the roles guys have been in. You’re kind of envisioning a two-run home run there.”
With the loss, West Virginia now has to survive the next step of the Morgantown Regional.
The Mountaineers will look to avoid elimination at noon Sunday against Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons (39-20) topped Binghamton, 12-3, in the first game Saturday at Kendrick Family Ballpark. Sabins said the Mountaineer coaching staff would work late Saturday to develop a pitching plan for the elimination contest.
“It’s very difficult to line up for the future. It’s more about next man up and as you win games. you’re going to have some heroic performances. ” Sabins said. “That was the message to the team at the end. If you haven’t had the ball a ton or you’ve been dying to be in the biggest games of the season. your time is coming so be ready for it.”.
If Kentucky advances, the winner will play Kentucky at 5 p.m. Sunday, with the possibility of a second game if the series requires it. The “if necessary” matchup is scheduled for Monday at a time to be determined.
Mingione said the advantage of controlling the schedule mattered.
“Anytime you have a chance to maybe play one less game than your opponent it actually does matter,” Mingione said.
Kentucky finished with 12 hits and was hit by a pitch on six occasions. Bennett was the last of five UK pitchers used and threw the final four innings, striking out three and issuing one walk. He allowed three runs on four hits over a 60-pitch performance.
Bennett described the mindset he brings from the bullpen.
“The biggest thing for me is I’m a pretty calm guy. I don’t get too caught up in the moment or try not to at least,” Bennett said. “Coming out of the bullpen, you have to have fire in your ass. Excuse my language, but that’s what you have to do.”
West Virginia totaled nine hits and drew six walks, but it surrendered six unearned runs. The nine runs are the most WVU has scored in any loss this season.
Sabins pointed to the way mistakes and free passes turned into the difference.
“When you do have that many free passes, those singles and doubles turns into runs,” Sabins said. “We made big pitches in big moments but they got big hits in big moments. It wasn’t our cleanest game.”
For all the rallies that brought the Mountaineers back, Kentucky left Kendrick Family Ballpark with the one thing the comeback couldn’t manufacture: a win that puts the Wildcats one step from moving on.
West Virginia Mountaineers Kentucky Wildcats Morgantown Regional Kendrick Family Ballpark Maxx Yehl Steve Sabins Nick Mingione NCAA baseball