WISE - - West Virginia State collected 32 hits in a doubleheader sweep of UVa-Wise at Stallard Field Saturday. The visiting Yellow Jackets claimed a 6-4 win in the opener before cruising to a 15-7 win in the finale.
West Virginia State's (18-10, 13-5 MEC) offense got going early when Trenton Porter doubled to lead off game one. The second baseman came around to score with two outs in the frame on a Phil Mandt base hit.
UVa-Wise (15-20, 5-13 MEC) would spend the rest of the afternoon trying to catch up. The Cavaliers would tie the game in the bottom of the first when Ben Coffman knocked in Marcus Elmore with a two-out infield single.
An inning later, Jonathan Cline and Justin Graham picked up an RBI each to put West Virginia State up 3-1.
Trailing 3-1, UVa-Wise once again tied the game, this time in the third inning. Ty Lighton singled and advanced to third on a fielding error, the Yellow Jackets' miscue allowed Elmore to score his second run of the game. A hitter later, Lighton tied the game when he scampered home on a wild pitch.
West Virginia State put the game away in the fourth inning. Graham knocked in Brandon Wright for the first run of the frame before Porter and Dylan Grimm also knocked in a run each to make the score 6-3.
The Cavaliers final run of the game came when Bryan Andrews doubled down the right field line to score Brett Yates.
Eric Roberts picked up his first win of the season (1-3) for the Yellow Jackets. The left-hander scattered five hits and allowed three earned runs in the mound win. Curtis Johnson collected his sixth save of 2016 as he tossed 1 2/3 innings of relief without allow a hit. Johnson's scoreless appearance allowed him to keep his ERA at 0.00 for the year.
Four the six runs against UVa-Wise starter Steve Klaiber were earned. The right-hander went the distance and struck out two as he dropped to 2-3 on the year.
Graham went 3-3 while Wright went 3-4 with a stolen base in the win. Elmore led UVa-Wise with a pair of hits and two runs scored in four trips to the plate.
The offensive explosion for West Virginia State continued into the finale as the visitors scored a combined eight runs in the game's first three innings to put the game out of reach.
The top three hitters in the Yellow Jackets' lineup combined for 10 hits, eight RBIs and six runs. Porter went 3-4 with three runs scored and three RBIs while Jamison Jones went 4-6 with four RBIs.
Vinny Kuchenbuch and David Thomas picked up two hits each in the loss as the pair combined for four of UVa-Wise's seven hits.
Dustin Kincaid picked up the mound win (3-2) for West Virginia State. Kincaid fanned six without allowing a walk in seven innings of work.
The teams will be back at it tomorrow at 1 p.m. to wrap up the four-game series with a doubleheader.
