West Virginia State Baseball remains perfect in Mountain East Athletic Conference action, sweeping Saturday’s doubleheader with Fairmont State (4-8, 2-2) to improve to 9-3 overall and 6-0 in league play.
Senior Matt Harrison launched two long balls and scored four times on the day as the Yellow Jackets registered their first shutout of the year, taking down the Falcons 7-0 in the opener and finished the series with a 12-3 win in the finale.
Juniors Brendan Quinn and Brett Christian and graduate student Christopher Jordan also recorded multi-hit performances, while Jordan and senior Andrew Stone also homered.
GAME 1: WVSU 7, FAIRMONT STATE 0
A single from Quinn delivered the first run of the contest for State, bringing home graduate student Antonio Brown, who walked to lead off the inning. Junior Michael Stone was next to score, coming in on a walk to catcher Andrew Massey. Stone reached earlier in the frame on a single he sliced to right center.
Jordan scored on an infield single, and Quinn plated the final run of the frame on a passed ball to give the Yellow Jackets a 4-0 cushion.
Michael Stone scored again on a connection from Quinn in the third, and WVSU added a run in each the sixth and seventh innings on homers from Jordan and Harrison.
Graduate student Ethan Lauchart improved to 2-0 on the season after six shutout innings where he struck out four. He combined with junior Foster Conis, who tossed a hitless inning with a strikeout.
GAME 2: WVSU 12, FAIRMONT STATE 3
The bats cracked early in the nightcap, as leadoff hitter Andrew Stone blasted a solo shot to right field, and Harrison followed suit just two batters later, sending his solo shot to center field to put the Yellow Jackets up 2-0 quick into the contest.
State continued to add cushion, plating another two runs in the second. A one-out walk to Austin Martin, followed by a stolen base, put the Yellow Jackets into scoring position. A single smacked back to center field from shortstop Brett Christian brought Martin across the plate, and then Christian came home after a wild pitch and a balk to put WVSU up 4-0. Martin would end up being walked three times in the contest.
A trio of singles followed by a sac fly got the Falcons on the board in the fourth, but the Yellow Jackets surged with three runs each in the fifth and sixth frames to boost their lead to 10-3.
In the fifth, outfielder Matt Kline reached via error, was singled to second by Harrison, and later scored on a sacrifice fly from Jordan. Back-to-back passed balls brought home Harrison and sophomore Trey Junkins, who boarded via walk earlier in the frame.
Christian plated his second run of the day in the sixth, bunting his way on and coming home on a bases-loaded walk to Brown. Harrison and Kline both came home yet again, this time courtesy of a Junkins single pushed into left field.
The Yellow Jackets scored twice in the seventh to finalize the victory at 12-3.