The No. 9 West Virginia Mountaineers (36-13, 20-9) fell to the TCU Horned Frogs (33-19, 17-12) Friday night 4-0.
TCU captured the lead in the top of the second when senior Preston Gamster hit a 418-foot home run over the visitors bullpen in left field and with one out, junior Kyuss Gargett drove a solo blast to left centerfield for a 2-0 Horned Frogs advantage.
West Virginia starting pitcher Maxx Yehl went into the sixth inning and recorded the first two outs of the frame before Jack Arthur hit a slow chopper to short and beat the throw for an RBI single. WVU head coach Steve Sabins opted to pull the redshirt junior for righ-hander JT Huether. The freshman worked quickly, striking out junior Colton Griffin. Yehl finished the evening with nine strikeouts in 6.2 innings of work.
Heading into the weekend, West Virginia junior Dawson Montesa was moved to the bullpen and entered the game to begin the eighth. After starting the inning with a pair of strikeouts, TCU sophomore Noah Franco tacked on a run in the eighth, lifting the 0-2 pitch for a two-out, pinch-hit solo home run. On the next pitch, Montesa beaned sophomore Nolan Traeger.
Then, a dropped strike three with the runner stealing second kept the inning alive. With runners standing on second and third, redshirt sophomore Cole Eaton swung at a pitch in the dirt for strike three, but skipped passed sophomore catcher Gavin Kelly to bring in another run as the Horned Frogs took a 4-0 lead.
