West Virginia Loses to State College in Sudden Death at The Mon

GRANVILLE, W.Va. – After a tight matchup, the West Virginia Black Bears dropped the second game of the series to the State College Spikes in sudden death on Saturday evening. A pitcher’s duel, both teams’ starting pitchers held the offenses at bay through five innings, with Spikes’ starter Derrick Cherry throwing five scoreless against the Bears. With the win, the Spikes even the series after Friday’s 7-6 loss at The Mon.

The game began with a strong showing from both starters with Black Bears starting pitcher Brian Edgington throwing a scoreless inning in the first.

But the Spikes got on the board in the top of the second with a home run by Ryan Guardino. After the homer, however, Edgington did not allow another run through the fifth.

John Bakke took over pitching duties after Edgington’s impressive start in the top of the sixth. The Spikes were able to tag Bakke for one more run on a double from Luis Aviles that scored Carlos Contreras. Heading into the bottom of the inning, the Bears trailed 2-0.

After the Spikes replaced Cherry for Justin Miller, West Virginia showed signs of life with a leadoff double by Michael Cooper. Patrick Lee followed with a groundout to short that drove in Cooper to trim the deficit to 2-1.

West Virginia began its comeback in the ninth inning. Carson Lambert relieved Bakke in the top half and held the Spikes scoreless while striking out two of three batters faced. Looking for a rally with three outs remaining, Jacob Rybicki was hit by a pitch and stole second to get into scoring position. Clutch hitting by Cam Ridley drove home Rybicki with an RBI single to tie the game 2-2.

West Virginia was unable to capitalize before ending the ninth, and the teams headed into sudden death. As the home team, the Bears selected offense to start the inning with a runner on base.

Ridley was caught stealing second to start the sudden death inning, but after an infield single by Cooper and the walk of Andres Ugarte, hope began to surface. Spikes reliever Ty Pohlmann became erratic, throwing a wild pitch putting the go-ahead run on third with two outs. After intentionally loading the bases to force an out, Manny Voorhees failed to drive in the winning run, and the Spikes came out victorious.

In his MLB Draft League debut, Brian Edgington gave a great performance on the mound. After giving up the solo shot in the second, the former University of Virginia pitcher kept the game at arms length as he recorded four hits and one earned run with seven strikeouts through five innings.

West Virginia looks to win the series against State College on Sunday afternoon for Kids’ Day. First pitch is set for 4:00 p.m.