Mount St. Mary's upsets No. 2 Merrimack 57-55 in Metro Atlantic semifinals
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Arlandus Keyes led six-seeded Mount St. Mary's with 13 points and sealed the victory with a free throw with 35 seconds remaining as the Mountaineers took down No. 2 seed Merrimack 57-55 on Friday in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals.
Mount St. Mary's will take on fourth-seeded Iona, which knocked off top-seeded Quinnipiac 81-73 in its semifinal.
Keyes shot 3 for 7 (2 for 6 from 3-point range) and 5 of 5 from the free-throw line for the Mountaineers (21-12). Jedy Cordilia added nine points while shooting 3 of 5 from the field and 3 for 4 from the line while they also had 10 rebounds. Dallas Hobbs had eight points and finished 2 of 7 from 3-point range and 2 for 4 from the line.
Sean Trumper led the Warriors (18-15) in scoring, finishing with 20 points, four steals and two blocks. Adam Clark added 13 points and seven assists for Merrimack. Devon Savage also recorded eight points and six rebounds.
Mount St. Mary's went into the half leading Merrimack 25-24. Keyes scored eight points in the half. Hobbs scored a team-high eight points for Mount St. Mary's in the second half.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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Dominion Post
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NOTEBOOK: Grant Hussey coming off the bench for WVU a move that had different factors
MORGANTOWN — It would be easy to point to a few stats as the reason why WVU baseball coach Steve Sabins elected to bring Grant Hussey off the bench over the three games it took the Mountaineers to win the Clemson Regional. Sabins, knowing the Mountaineers would likely face a ton of left-handed pitchers in the region, pointed to one stat himself. 'Hussey's performance against left-handers helped us get a little bit closer to that decision,' Sabins said. Yet it wasn't just batting averages or analytics that played into Sabins' choice to start sophomore Ben Lumsden at first base in all three games and bring Hussey — a former Parkersburg South standout — off the bench. 'There's a multitude of factors,' Sabins said. 'There were a thousand reasons that weren't isolated to Grant. 'That's where people get confused sometimes is that decisions are made to a player. Decisions are made only and strictly for the team.' Hussey is the school's all-time home run leader with 44 over his career. He's also third on the program's all-time list with 213 starts and he's the only player on the roster who has played in all 58 games this season. To suddenly see Lumsden at first base in the NCAA tournament was a bit unusual. Sabins said the decision should be viewed as calculated rather than unusual. 'You're essentially taking (Hussey's) skill set versus the opposing pitching and then you have to make a decision on if there's another player that we think is on our team who may be able to help us win more often,' Sabins said. 'I felt like, in this circumstance, it was viewed as a one-for-one, where you take Grant out and put in Ben Lumsden, but it was more complicated than that. It was not a one-out and one-in kind of thing.' As the Mountaineers (44-14) get set to travel to No. 6 overall seeded LSU (46-15) — Game 1 of the three-game series is 2 p.m. Saturday — Sabins said how he elects to use Hussey is still up in the air. 'There are games moving forward, maybe Grant will start or maybe Grant will come off the bench,' Sabins said. 'He's not used to that, but by the end, he had really turned the page. He handled it like a pro and performed at a high level.' If Hussey comes off the bench, expect to see him as a defensive replacement in close games. 'We need him at first base, especially late in games,' Sabins said. If I want to take some risks and think there might be a better at-bat matchup earlier offensively, the risk is that we might struggle defensively. That's where you saw, like in the fourth or fifth inning if we had a tie game, you have to put Grant in the game.' The major difference between playing in a four-team regional and a two-team super regional is the number of games. It's possible a team could play up to as many as five games to capture a regional championship, while a super regional is either going to be two or three games. Utilizing a pitching staff in a regional is more difficult, because coaches have to limit innings pitched in case of a deciding game the next day. In a super, you need two wins anyway you can get them. 'This week is easier to go all-in,' Sabins said. 'It's like anything, you need aggressive and intelligent risks for you to win. 'It's crazy (in a regional), because you can push all your chips in, but then the score can change and you have to pull a couple back, which you can't do on a poker table.' Sabins said the scores of the game will still dictate how many pitching changes he needs, but there won't be any holding back. 'If you have a chance to win the game, in general our philosophy has been to be aggressive, because we think our offense can score in bunches,' Sabins said. 'You certainly don't ever want to give the team the feeling that you're playing for tomorrow, so you have to keep going.' The Mountaineers might be the only team in the super regionals who can't wait to get to the bottom of their batting order. Lumsden, along with Brodie Kresser and Armani Guzman combined to hit .447 (17 of 38) in the Clemson Regional. They scored eight runs and drove in 12. Guzman, who bats ninth in WVU's lineup, was named the regional's MVP after hitting .667 with six RBIs. 'I bet there's never been a nine-hole hitter who has been a tournament MVP,' Sabins said. 'I would imagine that's the case. What he did was epic.' Sabins said there is a great feeling as a coach to see players at the bottom of the order producing, but it also begs another question: 'If your seven-through-nine hitters are winning regionals, should those guys be your one-through-three hitters? Like, what in the heck are you doing?' Sabins said. 'There's always a balance of trying to keep it in perspective, but it was incredible.'
Dominion Post
2 days ago
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COLUMN: WVU's regional baseball title goes deeper than just a voyage into the next round
MORGANTOWN — Left for dead for three consecutive games, there may not be enough words to accurately describe the jolt of life the WVU baseball team just put into the school's overall athletic reputation. We begin with your stat of the day: The 24th-ranked Mountaineers (44-14) scored 26 runs to win the Clemson, S.C. Regional in three games. Twelve of those runs came in the eighth inning or later. All three wins were comebacks, including Sunday night's 13-12 victory against Kentucky to clinch a trip to the super regionals. WVU STATS 'I think this team has been doubted throughout the season,' WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. 'They're the most resilient bunch of kids I've had the pleasure of coaching.' Resilient is one way of putting it. There are certainly others. Clutch and heroic come to mind. Unbelievable and astonishing are others. It's here that WVU catcher Logan Sauve relayed a terrific story. Trailing Kentucky, 11-7, in the sixth inning, WVU first baseman Grant Hussey sent a ball to the wall with the bases loaded. The game should have been tied right there. Whether it was just fate or a simply a stiff breeze blowing in, Hussey's blast fell just inches shy of a grand slam and safely into Kentucky outfielder's Cole Hage's glove to end the inning. Dejection could have set in right there. Instead, Sauve turned to teammate Armani Guzman, 'I told Armani after that inning that we were going to win this game,' Sauve said. 'There was never any doubt throughout our whole team, throughout the whole game, and really the whole weekend.' The WVU athletic department needed this like a thirsty man needs water, there is no doubt about that. This 2024-25 school year has not been short of headlines, but so many of them for the wrong reasons. Football coach was fired. Men's basketball team was snubbed from the NCAA tournament and then lost its head coach to Indiana. Even this baseball team that is being celebrated today was headed down a dark path over the final month of the regular season. It lost to Marshall in a walk-off, which would have been the worst kind of gut punch, except the Mountaineers exceeded that by doing the same thing against Pitt a week later. They were shut out twice in three games against Kansas … in Morgantown … when WVU needed just one win to truly celebrate winning the Big 12 title. It got boat raced in the Big 12 tournament against Arizona. If the program was doubted, as Sabins said, it certainly earned those doubts. And fundraisers within the WVU athletic department were about to go out to potential donors with hat in hand with very little to sell. Hey, we're bringing back glory with Rich Rodriguez as the new football coach. Well, you know how well that pitch would go over for about half of the donor and fan base. Those same WVU fundraisers now have a baseball team that, for a second consecutive season, is one of only 16 teams still alive for a national championship. 'I told Armani after that inning that we were going to win this game.' Sauve's words were meant for just that one game on a June night in the state of South Carolina, but did the Mountaineers actually wind up attaining a much deeper gratification by winning the regional? As in, did Sabins — and the work done before him by former head coach Randy Mazey — just put the Mountaineers on equal footing with the sport's elite? 'I think it would be fair to say we're a top 16 program in the country, for the last two years, at least,' Sabins said. 'I think we've built something really special in Morgantown. We've had 12 big leaguers in the last 10 years. We won an outright title in the Big 12 and we've won two Big 12 titles in the last three years.' A year ago, the Mountaineers won the Tucson, Ariz. Regional without having to play the host school. Not so this time. It not only beat Clemson in front of a raucous, hostile and sold-out atmosphere, but also took down Kentucky — from the mighty, mighty SEC, where it just means more — twice. 'More than just myself, to the whole team, it shows we all have it,' said Guzman, who was named the region's MVP after going 8 for 12 with six RBIs in three games. 'I was a guy who didn't play the last month and a half and I was here in this position. I think it's a big confidence boost for each guy.' WVU's performance was the kind of boost that commands attention. Not just from you and me in the state of West Virginia, but to the entire college baseball world. A major hurdle was cleared Sunday night. The kind that so many up-and-coming programs — in any sport — approach but only a rare few overcome. It's not a far stretch right now to say that the university that proudly boasts an alumni roster with the likes of Jerry West, Major Harris, Sam Huff, 'Hot' Rod Hundley and Da'Sean Butler is quickly developing into a baseball school. 'To say that our program is in the upper echelon and the best of the best when it comes to Division I baseball would not be an understatement,' Sabins said. 'I think that was proven this weekend.'
Dominion Post
3 days ago
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SUPER COMEBACK: No. 24 WVU downs Kentucky 13-12 to advance to the super regionals
The 24th-ranked WVU baseball had one final comeback in it at the Clemson Regional. The Mountaineers, trailing 12-7 in the eighth inning, scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth to come back to defeat Kentucky 13-12. West Virginia clinched its second straight super regional appearance with the victory, the first under coach Steve Sabins. Armani Guzman, who was named MVP of the regional, hit the game-clinching single to score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth to finish off a six-run inning for the Mountaineers (44-14). 'More than just myself, it shows (the team) we all have it,' Guzman said. 'I was a guy who didn't play the last month and a half and now I'm here in this position.' Being so close to a super regional, the Mountaineers didn't hold back anything to start the game, but their streaky hitting didn't allow them to keep a lead consistently. In the bottom of the first, junior catcher Logan Sauve hit a solo blast to left center to score the first run of the game. WVU didn't fall into the same hole they once did on Friday against the same Kentucky team in the opening-round game. Of course, WVU came back in walk-off fashion to win that game in the bottom of the ninth inning, scored four more runs in the ninth inning to beat Clemson on Saturday, but saved its best for last in the third game of the regional. After some really strong pitching in the last two games from WVU starters, Robby Porco struggled on the mound. Porco was relieved for Reese Bassinger in the top of the second after Porco walked three straight Wildcats to load the bases. After scoring 16 runs in their previous game against Clemson, the Wildcats bats stayed hot. The first batter that Bassinger would face, Devin Burkes hit a hard ball to left center field that would bring in two Wildcats to score. That wouldn't be the end of Kentucky's (31-26) relentless hitting. In the same top half of the inning, Cole Hage would hit another two RBI single to bring in another pair of Wildcats. Kentucky took a quick lead after WVU scored first. In the top of the third, Wildcats' veteran third baseman Patrick Herrera beamed the baseball down the third-base line and scored Carson Hansen all the way from first base. The Mountaineers would answer strongly in the bottom of the fourth, scoring six runs to take the lead back. A fielding error and a two-RBI single by Ben Lumsden would bring West Virginia right back in the mix of things. Who else other than Guzman to bring in two runners home with another two-RBI single. All regional, Guzman has been elite when the moment required him to be. He finished the three games going 8 for 12 with six RBIs. Just when all the momentum had flipped to WVU, Kentucky retook it once again. Hudson Brown delivered a RBI single to send Herrera home from second base and tie the game back up again. This would effectively end Bassinger's day and bring in lefty Ben McDougal. McDougal, much like the rest of the WVU pitchers, struggled. In the three batters McDougal faced, he hit two of them and walked the other to give Kentucky the lead back. Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, Carson Estridge didn't provide what was needed. Kentucky designated hitter Hudson Brown hit a gut-punch of a home run to extend the Wildcats lead. 'It was a really weird balancing act that we haven't had to do much this year.' WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. 'The offense stepped up huge and kept coming.' Pinch-hitting for Jace Rinehart, Grant Hussey nearly came in and hit a grand slam to tie the game. Kentucky left fielder Cole Hage robbed him of it, banging into the left field wall to make the catch. When all hope was seemingly lost, the WVU Mountaineers rose from the ashes. 'That's the three best set of games I've ever been a part of as a player or a coach in my life,' Sabins said. 'It literally had everything you could have imagined, including walk-offs, and six-run eights…' Once again, West Virginia was able to load the bases. This time, in the bottom of the eighth, they were able to convert as Sam White drew a walk that would score a run. With two outs, both Gavin Kelly and Lumsden would hit RBI singles to score four more runners to tie the game. With three outs remaining for Kentucky to tie or take the lead, Griffin Kirn came in and did what he does best. He got the job done for WVU and retired the Kentucky batters to end the game. To describe the WVU series of games this weekend, Sabins said, 'Heroic plays, heroic performances, heroic at-bats, it's the best television you could have watched for three straight games.' — Story by Nic Costello
