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West Virginia State University Athletics

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BB23 Paulsen
Photo: Todd Griffith
8
Winner Bluefield St. BSU 5-8
6
West Virginia St. WVSU 3-3
Winner
Bluefield St. BSU
5-8
8
Final
6
West Virginia St. WVSU
3-3
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Bluefield St. BSU 2 4 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 8 10 1
West Virginia St. WVSU 0 0 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 6 10 1

W: Kerry Collins (1-1) L: Lafunor, Caleb (0-1) S: Aiden Hedgepeth (2)

Game Recap: Baseball | | James Garcia, Sports Information Director

Yellow Jackets battle back but fall short to Bluefield State

INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The West Virginia State University baseball team (3-3) suffered an 8-6 defeat to Bluefield State (5-8) in a nine-inning game played on Wednesday afternoon at Cal Bailey Field. 

The game threatened to be a blowout after two innings. After a four-pitch walk, the Big Blue homered to right field in the second at bat of the contest, 2-0.

The side was then retired in order in the bottom of the first before Bluefield tacked on four more runs in the second inning. A catcher's interference call extended the top of the second and made all four runs unearned. An RBI-single down the left field line scored one before a homerun to left field resulted in three more runs, 6-0.

The Big Blue added one more run in the top of third with another RBI-single. The Yellow Jackets finally responded in the ensuing half inning with two runs. After loading the bases, left fielder Ryan Kay was hit by a pitch to bring one run across. Center fielder Nathan Paulsen then singled into left field to bring another run across, 7-2. The next two batters were retired to leave three stranded.

Tyler Lafferty came into pitch in the top of the fourth and was solid through three innings of work. He allowed just two hits and one walk during his outing with no runs scored on his watch.

Meanwhile, West Virginia State battled back at the plate with three runs scored in the bottom of the fourth and another run scored in the bottom of the fifth. After placing runners on first and second in the fourth inning, Bluefield's starting pitcher was yanked. Shortstop Kyle Waters doubled to left field off the reliever to bring Connor Fizer home. Waters then waited until the last second to get out of the way of a ground ball to the shortstop allowing Kay to reach base safely and Michael Bittinger to score. One more run was scored on a groundout to close the gap to two runs, 7-5.

In the fifth inning, Fizer launched his fourth homerun of the season with nobody on to make it a one-run game, 7-6.  The Big Blue's Aiden Hedgepeth came in to pitch two batters later and stayed in the contest until its conclusion.

Hedgepeth only gave up one hit and two bases on balls while striking out five in his 4.1 innings pitched. One more insurance run was scored by Bluefield in the top of the seventh to give the game its final score, 8-6.

Fizer was the only Yellow Jacket with multiple hits. He went 3-for-3 with a double, a homerun and one base on balls. He scored twice and drove in one run.

West Virginia State will play another nine-inning game at home against Cedarville on Sunday, March 5th next. The first pitch is scheduled for noon.

 
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