Utah starting pitcher Colter McAnelly exited with one out in the eighth inning having tossed his 124th pitch of the night. McAnelly left a runner on first base, having kept the Utes in the game against the high-powered Mountaineer offense.
Six pitches later, WVU's all-time home run leader Grant Hussey hit a 432-foot, home run, plating two runs, as it broke a 3-3 tie. That would end up being the deciding factor as the Mountaineers took game one from the Utes on Friday, winning 6-3 from Kendrick Family Ballpark.
Griffin Kirn gave West Virginia a performance worthy of a win. He struck out a career-high 14 batters, but two runners he left on would come around to score to tie the game at 3-3. That's until Hussey's blast broke the tie, giving the Mountaineers the win.
Utah got on the board against Kirn in the second inning as Drake Digiorno hit a solo home run to give Utah a 1-0 lead.
The Mountaineer offense responded with a couple of blasts of their own as Kyle West and Jace Rinehart went back-to-back in the third inning, West's blast traveling 408 feet, while Rinehart's blast traveled 415 feet and WVU led 2-1.
That would be all Kirn would need as he turned in arguably his best outing of the season. Kirn stranded runners on base in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, while he still was able to dominate the Utes.
Logan Sauve hit WVU's third home run of the night in the fifth inning, as he blasted his third home run of the season to put WVU ahead 3-1.
That lead held until the seventh inning as Kirn ran into trouble. He exited the game with runners on second and third with two outs, as he gave the ball to Chase Meyer.
Meyer who has unquestionably been WVU's best reliever in recent weeks, hit a batter, before he gave up a two-run single, as Utah tied the game at 3-3. West Virginia threatened to retake the lead in the bottom of the inning, but stranded the bases loaded.
Meyer stayed in the game following the seventh, tossing a scoreless eighth, with that inning on a double play started by Meyer, before he came out to close the game in the ninth.
Meyer issued a one-out walk, before hitting another batter to put runners on first and second with two outs before Meyer ended the night with a strikeout to secure the win for the Mountaineers.
Meyer finished the game tossing 2.1 innings, giving up just one hit and not allowing a run.
West Virginia gets win No. 25 on the season, and moves to 5-3 in Big 12 play with the win.
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