Staying alive
Schoenfeld\\\'s homer propels West Virginia past Kentucky to force deciding game
AP Photo/Mike Buscher
GRANVILLE, W.Va. — The West Virginia fans at Kendrick Family Ballpark had their hats inside out. There was a section of fans with their shirts off swinging them around. And everyone was on their feet. The Mountaineers had the game tied in the top of the ninth after being down three runs.
On the loudspeaker, “My Way” by Fetty Wap played on the loudspeaker. Paul Schoenfeld hit his bat to the ground to take off the weight, and he made his way up to the plate.
Kentucky’s pitcher Oliver Boone dealt. Ball.
“First pitch heater,” Schoenfeld said.
Schoenfeld stepped out of the box and gave Schoenfeld a sign.
“Sabs put green on the watch,” Schoenfeld said. “I was like, I’m going to get my hack here. I got it off of the end of the bat. I hit it 92 miles per hour. I caught it off the end of the bat, but I swung pretty hard.”
Schoenfeld’s homer carried. He started to walk down the first base path, along the yellow Wagner Field letters, and watched. So did every fan left in the stadium. It carried over the right field fence for a two-run homer, which ended up being the go-ahead two runs for the Mountaineers to beat Kentucky, 11-9, staying alive in the Morgantown Regional. Kentucky and WVU go back at it in a winner-takes-all game at 6 p.m. on Monday.
It was a “one of one” moment for the fifth-year senior from Wichita, Kansas.
“I can’t believe it,” Schoenfeld said on ESPN. “I swung pretty hard, and I crushed it. I blacked out right now. This is crazy.”
Schoenfeld’s homer capped off another classic WVU baseball comeback in the ninth inning. WVU entered the ninth, trailing three runs 9-6. The life seemed sucked out of the Mountaineers. WVU hadn’t scored since the third inning. Meanwhile, Kentucky continued to add runs, scoring in the first four innings, and every inning aside from two.
Brodie Kresser, who had fielding errors in Saturday’s loss, started off the ninth by reaching on an error. Ben Lumsden walked, and Tyrus Hall singled to left field to load the bases. Both teams struggled to find consistent pitchers who could find the strike zone. After a Kentucky pitching change, Armani Guzman walked in a run to bring it to 9-7. The Wildcats had another pitching change. Gavin Kelly hit a sacrifice fly to add another, and Hall scored on a balk from Kentucky’s pitcher to tie the game 9-9.
Schoenfeld was up next, and he hit the homer, sending Morgantown into a frenzy.
“I remember just like looking up, you’re seeing the sky is like a beautiful sky. You have people on the hill, there’s guys with their shirts off, waving them,” Sabins said. “It’s a little bit quieter because I think you’re in that compete mode. But the atmosphere, I just… I’ve never seen anything like that in college baseball. I don’t think anybody that’s ever primarily covered West Virginia baseball has ever seen anything like that before.”
Schoenfeld went 2-for-4 and had a double earlier in the game during the scoring drought, trying to fire up the team and crowd. Kresser and Guzman each had two hits as well. The Mountaineers were still out-hit 13-10 in the game.
Kentucky had three homers of its own, with two coming from Tyler Bell. Bell had what was thought to be the nail in the coffin in the bottom of the seventh to make it 9-6. But WVU found a way to erase it in the ninth.
After Schoenfeld’s home run, WVU couldn’t celebrate too much because there was still the bottom of the inning to play. Kentucky was the home team and still had three outs to create some magic of its own.
The Mountaineers had to play earlier in the day to get to play Kentucky. Pitcher Dawson Montesa pitched seven innings to aid in WVU’s 10-5 victory over Wake Forest. The Mountaineers only used two arms in that game, but they exhausted a lot of the bullpen arms in Game 2 and the first time they played Kentucky on Saturday.
It took WVU three pitchers before it landed on Bridgeport, West Virginia, native Ben McDougal, who could consistently throw strikes. He threw the last five innings and retired the last three batters to beat the Wildcats.
With the help of Schoenfeld and the come-from-behind win, the Mountaineers’ season lives another day. The No. 1 seed WVU plays No. 3 seed Kentucky in the final game of the Morgantown Regional. The winner heads to the Super Regional. WVU has to celebrate quickly to reset for Monday.
“It’s the same process as any kind of outing,” McDougal said. “Eat, get food in, go to bed, hydrate, wake up, and get ready to win a ball game.”
Even if this game only lasts a couple of hours for the players, it’ll be remembered for a long time in West Virginia baseball history.
“It was just epic,” Sabins said. “I don’t think there’s any other way to put it. Was one of the funnest days I’ve been a part of in a long time. Guys are running on fumes. You have people making jokes at inopportune times because they’re delirious, dehydrated and everything in between. You just had a whole bunch of people playing for each other and playing for something bigger than themselves.”