MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In its Big 12 opener, the West Virginia University baseball team defeated BYU, 10-4, at Wagener Field at Kendrick Family Ballpark, Thursday afternoon. The Mountaineers improve to 8-6 while the Cougars fall to 6-6.
 
Junior Aidan Major threw 8.0 innings, setting a new career-long, and struck out eight while allowing four runs to improve to 3-0 on the season.
 
At the plate, sophomore Skylar King went 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Sophomore Sam White and freshman Spencer Barnett each reached base four times with White knocking in a pair of runs while Barnett crossed the plate twice. Sophomore Ellis Garcia hit his first home run of the season as part of a two-hit, two-RBI, two-run performance.
 
After the Mountaineers took a 1-0 lead in the first on a run-scoring double play, the game remained tight until the fifth when WVU extended its lead with five runs on five singles and a walk. White and junior Kyle West each drove in two runs in the inning while Garcia knocked in the fifth run.
 
BYU got on the board in the seventh with a home run, but Garcia answered with a home run of his own to lead off the home half of the inning. Barnett added another run later in the seventh with an RBI single before a third run came around to score on an error.
 
The Cougars hit a couple of home runs in the eighth to get a little closer. Garcia scored his second run of the day in the bottom of the inning on a wild pitch to put the Mountaineers in double digits before redshirt-freshman Bryce Amos closed out the game on the mound with a scoreless ninth.
 
The two teams will wrap up the series on Friday with a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. There will be no game on Saturday due to expected inclement weather.
 
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