With three big runs in the sixth inning, the University of Charleston was able to punch its ticket to the Mountain East Conference baseball tournament with a 7-1 victory to complete a Sunday doubleheader sweep of West Virginia State at Triana Field.
The wins gave the Golden Eagles their 29th win of the season - tying the program record set in 2000 - and clinches at least a third-place finish in the South division of the conference.
"It was incredible to see these guys respond like this when we needed a couple wins," UC coach Andrew Wright said. "We wanted to come out and play some of our best baseball right now, and things went our way today.
"Our focus now is on the fact that we still have a lot of things we can take care of tomorrow."
After spending a few innings tied 1-1 with neither team budging, Charleston (29-19, 17-13 Mountain East) was able to break through in the bottom of the sixth when Lee Carneal led the inning off with a single and was joined on base by Brice Arrington, who entered the game as a pinch runner when Nick Wilson walked. That was when Taylor Itnyre delivered with an RBI single that was able to bring both runs in to score and move Itnyre all the way to third base after a costly WVSU error.
Itnyre came in to score a batter later on a Justin Mixon base hit that gave the UC defense and starting pitcher Kaleb Kinder some much-needed breathing room.
"We had some great at-bats in that inning," Wright said. "Mixon and Itnyre came through big for us. They just went out and executed their jobs the way we know they can."
Kinder was able to escape a jam in the seventh as WVSU got a couple of runners in scoring position. The southpaw threw a complete game, allowing just one run despite West Virginia State recording 10 hits.
The Golden Eagles picked up a win in the first game of the day by riding the arm of starting pitcher Adam Jafine and a few early runs in a 5-0 victory over the Yellow Jackets to begin the doubleheader on a positive note.
Jafine, a left-handed pitcher, picked up his seventh victory of the season by striking out six and allowing three hits over seven to earn the Golden Eagles' first complete game shutout since 2015.
"Adam's a guy who we know, when he's on, he can pitch as well as anyone," Wright said. "He can be very hard to hit and that's a great game from him to give him some more confidence heading into the tournament."
Charleston was able to get its lead-off batter on base in each of the first three innings of the game, and the Golden Eagles were able to drive in all three of those runners as they wasted no time building their lead.
That early success helped UC get ahead before WVSU starter Colby Gainer settled into the game and made it difficult for the Golden Eagles to generate more offense.
Gainer retired his final nine batters of the game, striking out four and allowing five runs - three earned - through six innings.
"We needed those runs early. It got us rolling and got us feeling pretty good," Wright said. "It was nice to see us get the leadoff guys on to set the table for us and get in scoring position so we could have guys bring them in."
Carneal had two hits in both games for the day, finishing the day 4-for-7 at the plate. Itnyre also had two hits in both games for UC and drove in two more runs in the eighth inning of the second game.
Gianfranco Morello had two hits in the second game for the Golden Eagles, and made a huge catch with the game tied early on as he robbed a home run that would have given WVSU the lead. Austin Hathaway also had two hits in the final game.
WVSU was led offensively by Brandon Wright, who had two hits in the first game, while Christopher Jordan had a couple of hits and scored the Yellow Jackets' lone run in the second game.
The two teams will square off again on Monday in the final games of the regular season at Cal Bailey Field in Institute. The first game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.