Tyrus Hall delivered a grand slam for No. 16 West Virginia in the bottom of the fourth, and the Mountaineers comfortably steered to a 12-2 win over Cal Poly in the first game of a Best-of-3 Super Regional on Friday in Morgantown.
A win closer to Omaha, the Mountaineers (44-15) leaned on starting pitcher Chansen Cole (7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 11 K) and Hall’s big fourth-inning hit to outpace the Mustangs (39-23) and establish a 1-0 advantage in West Virginia’s first-ever Super Regional at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
The series resumes on Saturday with first pitch slated for 12 p.m. EDT. To the west, the No. 15 Kansas Jayhawks hosts Oklahoma for Game 1 of the Lawrence Super Regional at 6 p.m., Saturday at Hoglund Ballpark.
Here’s our top three takeaways from West Virginia’s series opener:
ONE BIG SWING
Hall‘s grand slam is the headliner, and it’s not even close.
In the top of the fourth, Cal Poly’s Dylan Kordic cut West Virginia’s early lead to two with a one-run homer off Cole to begin the frame. Cole stranded two baserunners to end the side, and the Mountaineers caught some major insurance with Hall’s one-out grand salami.
Hall entered Friday’s Super Regional with five homers on the season, and now returned the favor with his first grand slam as a Mountaineer after singling on ahead of a Sean Smith four-run bomb earlier this season during a regular-season series with Arizona State. On Friday, Smith got the Mountaineers on the board first with a three-run homer for a 3-0 lead through the end of the first.
CHASEN THE COOL
Improving to 10-1 on the season, Cole delivered one of his best outings yet on Friday.
Cole, a right-hander from Boiling Springs, South Carolina, was elusive as ever with no walks and 11 strikeouts through 7.0 innings of two-run, eight-hit baseball.
In the fourth, Cole caught three different Mustangs swinging following Kordic’s homer, which remained Cal Poly’s only run for the next two frames until the seventh.
Cal Poly scored another run via Alejandro Garza (RBI single) in the top of the seventh, but the Mountaineers piled on four more runs through the end of the eighth to claim the win in the ninth.
THE ODDS
West Virginia already carried an 81.5% chance of qualifying for the College World Series into its home series with Cal Poly, and considering 75% of Game 1 Super Regional winners make the CWS, it’s highly probable the Mountaineers will be on the celebrating end tomorrow.
Factor in a sold-out home crowd and the odds look especially steep for the Mustangs.
Cal Poly, hitting a crucial milestone with its first-ever Super Regional appearance, is the same squad that denied top seed UCLA a path out of the elimination bracket last week. On Friday, though, the Big West co-champions managed just two runs on nine hits and no errors.
