West Virginia beats Troy 7-5 in meeting of teams making their first College World Series appearances

OMAHA, Neb. — Tyrus Hall hit the tiebreaking single in the eighth inning, Ian Korn held Troy to one run in his longest relief appearance of the season, and West Virginia beat the Trojans 7-5 Friday in a meeting of teams making their first appearances in the College World Series.

Hall hit a two-run double in the second inning and came up in the eighth with two runners on against Zach Crotchfelt. With the infield pulled in, Hall chopped the ball over first base for a two-run lead.

Korn, the Division II pitcher of the year at Seton Hill last year, steadied the Mountaineers after Troy knocked out Chansen Cole in the third inning. Korn (6-1) went six innings and allowed two hits, including Sun Belt Conference player of the year Jimmy Janicki's tying home run in the seventh.

Little-used reliever Ben McDougal came on with a runner on base and two outs in the ninth and got Janicki to foul out for his first save. Shortly after that, the Mountaineers stood side-by-side along the third-base line to face their celebrating fans and sing “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

“Our state is a state that’s really rooted in unity and rooting for each other and believing that anything is possible,” coach Steve Sabins said “It’s a small rural state that thinks that things haven’t always gone their way. You’ve got to fight extra hard and work extra hard and you’ve got to show up longer and harder in order to accomplish great things. That’s kind of the mentality that our team has taken.”

Korn, who pitched a low-stress inning against Cal Poly in super regionals after getting rocked by Kentucky in regionals, was called on after Sean Darnell's two-out, two-run doubled tied it 4-all in the third. Of Korn's 79 pitches, 51 were strikes.

“Unfortunately, Korn, who had a tough regional there, was able to bounce back,” Troy coach Skylar Meade said. “There's a reason he’s had a lot of success through the year, because he’s been punched, right? But he stepped up and was his very best today.”

Before Hall's winning hit, Crotchfelt (7-3) hadn't given up a run in 11 1/3 innings over five appearances.

West Virginia (46-15), which has won 18 of its last 21 games, will play Sunday against the winner of Friday night's Mississippi-North Carolina game. Troy (38-31) will face the loser in an elimination game Sunday.

The CWS opener started with some excitement when West Virginia leadoff man Armani Guzman stole home to open the scoring. He took a big lead off third base against left-hander Benjamin Stubbs and came hard down the line.

The pitch was high, and the headfirst-sliding Guzman was able to get his left hand onto the plate just ahead of Janicki’s tag. Umpire Jason Bradley was knocked off balance, gathered himself and called Guzman safe. It was the first straight steal of home in the CWS since 2000, and Guzman’s school-record 39th steal of the season.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done it in a game like that," Guzman said, “but I do it a lot in practice. But when I hit the umpire, I kind of got the wind knocked out of me. It kind of hurt. The adrenaline was there, so I didn’t really feel it until I got back into the dugout.”