West Virginia heads to Big 12 final
OKLAHOMA CITY — Freshmen Ryan Bergert and Zach Ottinger combined on a one-hitter as West Virginia shut out top seed Texas Tech 2-0 Saturday night to advance to the Big 12 tournament final.
Bergert (2-0) took a perfect game into the fifth inning, but Tech's Cameron Warren broke it up with a single.
Bergert allowed one hit in five innings and Ottinger threw four hitless innings to earn the save for the No. 4 seed Mountaineers.
The Mountaineers (3718) will face the winner of Sunday 9 a.m. elimination game between TCU and Oklahoma State on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Brandon White had three hits and Darius Hill drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Earlier Brian Klein and Cameron Warren each had two hits to help the Red Raiders (39-17) beat the Mountaineers 10-3.
The Red Raiders broke that game open with a four-run fifth inning that included a two-run homer by co-Big 12 Player of the Year Josh Jung.
Texas Tech starter Mason Montgomery lasted just 11⁄3 innings, but the Red Raiders’ bullpen came through. Ryan Sublette gave up one run in 41⁄3 innings to get the win and Dane Haveman threw three shutout innings to earn the save.
Meanwhile Josh Watson and Zach Humphreys both had four hits, and TCU stayed alive with a 13-6 win over Oklahoma State.
TCU, which beat Baylor 5-2 earlier Saturday to finish a game that was suspended Friday night due to rain, could collect three straight wins to reach the final.
TCU (32-25) rolled out to a 6-0 lead, but Oklahoma State tied it up at 6-all on Cade Cabbiness’ grand slam in the seventh. The sixth-seeded Horned Frogs answered with five runs in the eighth.
TCU starter Jared Janczak threw six innings and gave up two runs while striking out 12. Haylen Green earned the win with three innings of shutout relief. Caleb Simpson had two hits, including a solo homer, for third-seeded Oklahoma State (34-18).
In a continuation of the suspended game, No. 6-seed TCU eliminated No. 2-seed Baylor 5-2. The game entered a rain delay at 9:21 p.m. Friday night and was postponed until Saturday morning.
The Horned Frogs (3125) benefitted from a dominant outing on the mound by junior Brandon Williamson. Williamson went seven innings, allowing just two runs on seven hits while striking out nine. Senior Josh Watson led the Horned Frogs offense, going 2-for-4 with two pivotal RBI.
Baylor (34-17) countered with a run in the bottom half of the inning as Nick Loftin led off the inning with a triple and was driven in by junior Shea Langeliers on a sacrifice fly.
SOUTHLAND
Payton Harden drove in the go-ahead run in the last of the seventh, reaching base on a fielder’s choice, and Clayton Rasbeary followed with a two-run single, lifting McNeese to a 4-2 win over Central Arkansas in a winner-take-all championship game of the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament at Sugar
Land.
The No. 5 seed, McNeese (35-24) went 4-0 over four days at Constellation Field and receives the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Rasbeary collected three of McNeese’s 12 hits. None bigger than his tworun single in a three-run seventh. Nate Fisbeck, Jake Dickerson and Carson Maxwell had two hits each for the Cowboys.
Beau Orlando singled in Tyler Smith in the fourth for the second-seed Bears’ first run. Tanner Wiley, the Bears’ starting pitcher, drove in a run in the eighth.
Central Arkansas (32-27) secured a spot in the title game with a 6-3 10-inning win over Southeastern Louisiana earlier on Saturday. Wiley collected four of the Bears’ 11 hits against USL.