West Virginia topped Troy again, this time 12-0 in an elimination game to advance to the Men’s College World Series semifinals. The Mountaineers will next play North Carolina at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday on ESPN. WVU will have to beat the Tar Heels twice to make the finals, with the if necessary game on Thursday.
Gavin Kelly had the big swing for WVU, hitting a 3-run blast to open up the game to a 5-0 lead. On the mound, the Mountaineers got 5.1 shutout innings from starting pitcher Dawson Montesa. Though the Trojans eventually pushed Montesa out in the sixth and loaded the bases with no outs, Reese Bassinger came in relief and delivered with three straight outs.
Every batter reached base, with Kelly finishing 3-6 at the plate with four RBI. West Virginia finished 6-16 (.375) with runners on, while Troy struggled at 1-18 (.056).
Some notes from the game:
West Virginia’s Armani Guzman finished with three steals. He’s the first player to have 3+ steals in a MCWS game since 2018 (Florida’s Jonathan India)
Kelly has hit 12 homers in his last 22 games after hitting only six in the first 40 games of the season
Twelve of Kelly’s 18 HR have come since the start of May, tied with Oklahoma’s Deiten Lachance for the most in DI over that span.
Since falling to Miami (Fla.) in the first game of regionals, Troy went 7-2 the rest of the tournament — 7-0 against teams not named “West Virginia”