DELAND, Fla. – The West Virginia University baseball team fell to Stetson, 7-5, in 11 innings on Saturday at Melching Field at Conrad Park. The Mountaineers drop to 1-1 on the season while the Hatters improve to 1-1.
 
Junior Brodie Kresser went 2-for-5 with his first home run as a Mountaineer to pace the offense. Junior JJ Wetherholt also added two hits and scored a run.
 
On the mound, junior Tyler Switalski got the start and allowed three runs in 5.0 innings, striking out a pair. Redshirt-sophomore David Hagaman threw 5.0 innings out of the pen and struck out three while allowing two runs.
 
The Mountaineers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first as sophomore Ellis Garcia hit an RBI double before junior Grant Hussey tacked on a run with a sacrifice fly.
 
Stetson got one run back in the bottom half of the inning before the pace slowed down as the Mountaineers held on to a one-run lead until the sixth inning when Stetson scored four runs to go out in front.
 
In the eighth, West Virginia got a gift as a dropped fly ball in left with two outs scored a run and extended the inning for Kresser, who deposited a game-tying home run over the left-field wall.
 
The game remained tied until the 11^th when Stetson's Lorenzo Meola hit a walk-off home run to dead center field, handing the Mountaineers their first loss of the young season.
 
The two teams are tentatively scheduled to be back on the diamond on Sunday for game three at 1 p.m., but there is expected to be inclement weather in the area for most of the day.
 
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