Concord Drops Thriller to WV State, 4-3

Box Score BECKLEY, W. Va. – Concord University baseball senior pitcher Tyler Coyle and West Virginia State's Tyler Thompson both had dominant outings, but the Yellow Jackets managed to eke out a narrow 4-3 victory over the Mountain Lions Friday night in Mountain East Conference Tournament play at Epling Stadium.
 
The second-seeded Mountain Lions (37-15) will now face Shepherd, the tournament's top seed that lost an 12-7 decision to Urbana earlier in the day, in an elimination game 11:00 a.m. Saturday with the winner coming back to play West Virginia State at 7:00 p.m.
 
Coyle (7-3) gave Concord seven strong innings, scattering 10 hits and three runs while striking out five batters in the loss. Coyle routinely got out of jams throughout the contest, ending the night with a total of nine West Virginia State runners left on base.
 
Meanwhile, Thompson (7-4) countered by striking out 13 batters and surrendering eight hits and two runs over eight innings with reliever Josh Falbo coming on for the save despite giving up one run in the ninth.
 
Senior outfielder Bret Blevins led Concord's offensive charge by producing a 3-for-4, two-run, one-RBI, one-stolen base effort. The performance extended his hitting streak to 21 games and moved him to within two hits of tying the Concord career hits record of 276 by Donovan Huffer.
 
Senior first baseman Joey Miller (2-for-5), junior third baseman Ryan Johnston (2-for-2) and junior outfielder T.J. Brockway (2-for-4) all recorded two-hit outings as well. Johnston drove in a pair of runs and Brockway also stole a base.
 
West Virginia State broke a scoreless tie with one out in the second inning when Trenton Porter drove a 3-1 pitch over the left field wall for a solo home run. The Yellow Jackets lead would be short lived as Concord quickly countered in the third when Johnston shot a single up the middle to score Blevins, who reached base earlier in the inning after being hit by a pitch.
 
The game remained tied at 1-1 until the fifth inning when Johnston once again brought in Blevins via an RBI-single to left field. However, West Virginia State knotted the contest in the bottom half of the frame before eventually pulling away with two runs in the eighth to take a 4-2 edge heading into the ninth.
 
The Mountain Lions attempted a late rally in the ninth inning when Blevins connected on a two-out single that scored junior second baseman Jerrod Groves, who reached base on a fielding miscue, from second base, but Falbo proceeded to retire Miller to end the comeback bid and secure the one-run, 4-3, victory.
 
Senior relief pitchers Tim Leather and Chris Baker closed out the game for Concord in the eighth inning; Leather recorded one out and allowed one run while Baker tallied outs against both batters he faced.
 
Concord's best opportunity for runs after the fifth inning came in the eighth inning when CU loaded the bases with no outs before Thompson fought back with two strikeouts and a ground out to end the frame.