The West Virginia University baseball team improved to 6-0 at PNC Park on Tuesday, defeating Pitt, 11-1, in seven innings. The Mountaineers improve to 27-16 while the Panthers fall to 18-23.
Junior Grant Hussey hit two home runs on the night to move into sole possession of the WVU home run record with 36 in his career, surpassing Jedd Gyorko and Tim McCabe. He finished the night with three hits, five RBI and three runs scored.
Sophomore Benjamin Lumsden hit a home run as part of a two-hit night. Sophomore Logan Sauve went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored while junior JJ Wetherholt and sophomore Sam White each added a pair of base knocks as well.
On the mound, sophomore Gavin Van Kempen picked up his seventh win of the season with four strikeouts in three scoreless innings. Junior Tyler Switalski struck out five in two innings of work while freshmen Chase Meyer and Joseph Fredericks each struck out one in a scoreless inning.
The Mountaineers were off and running from the first pitch as Sauve, who was batting leadoff for the first time this season, roped a double before coming around to score on a single from senior Reed Chumley. Hussey then followed with a three-run homer the other way into the short corner down the left-field line.
Wetherholt put two runs on the board in the second with a double before Lumsden tacked on a couple more with a two-run home run in the third to straightaway centerfield into the "PIRATES" shrubbery.
In the fifth, Hussey broke the record with a two-run rocket to right field with the ball landing nearly halfway up the bleachers above the 21-foot Clemente wall. Sauve put the final touch on the night a few batters later with a sacrifice fly.
West Virginia will return to action this weekend, May 3-5, on the road at Cincinnati. First pitch on Friday is set for 5 p.m.