BOX SCORE I PLAY-BY-PLAY

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Eastern Kentucky University baseball team fell to West Virginia, 13-11, on Tuesday night at Appalachian Power Park. The Mountaineers went ahead for good in the bottom of the seventh of a back-and-forth contest that featured six lead changes and three ties.

The loss snaps EKU’s five-game winning streak and drops the Colonels’ record to 17-15. WVU improves to 16-17.

Sophomore Richie Rodriguez batted 4-for-5 for the Colonels with an RBI and three runs scored. Sophomore Jacob Daniel, meanwhile, went 2-for-3 with three RBI and three runs scored while senior Anthony Ottrando led EKU with four RBI.

Dom Hayes and Justin McDavid both paced the Mountaineers with three RBI apiece.

Freshman right-hander Chris Barte (1-1) got the loss for EKU, pitching the seventh and allowing two runs on three hits.

Andy Altemus (3-3) earned the win for the Mountaineers, throwing the final 2.1 innings of the game and surrendering no runs on one hit.

The Colonels wasted no time in jumping out to a 4-0 lead. Rodriguez led off the game with a base hit and went to third on a double off the wall in right center by Daniel. After junior Jayson Langfels was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Ottrando crushed a ball over the left field wall for his second grand slam of the season.

WVU got two back in the bottom of the first as Jedd Gyorko crushed the first ball he saw off the wall in center for a leadoff triple, then scored on an RBI groundout by Hayes. Matt Frazer made it 4-2 with a solo shot to right field two batters later.

After the Mountaineers plated three in the second to take a one-run lead, EKU responded in the fourth with three of its own. Rodriguez started the rally with a base hit that scored freshman Matt Phipps. Then, after Daniel walked, Langfels reached on a throwing error that scored both Rodriguez and Daniel and made the score 7-5.

A single up the middle by Kevin Griffin in the bottom of the fifth scored McDavid and capped a two-run inning for the Mountaineers that tied it at 7-7; however, in the top of the sixth, Daniel gave the Colonels their largest lead since the first inning when he powered a ball over the wall in right field that scored Rodriguez and junior Bryce Labhart to make the score 10-7.

The Mountaineers continued the seesaw game in the bottom of that inning, though, as they pushed across four runs to take an 11-10 lead. EKU tied it in the seventh when junior Ryan Faidley was plunked by a pitch with the bases loaded and two outs, scoring senior Joey Stevens and knotting it up at 11-11.

WVU went ahead again in the seventh as Dom Hayes blasted an RBI double and Frazer dropped an RBI single into left to make it 13-11. The damage could have been worse, but freshman right hander Chris Barte got McDavid to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Colonels return to action tomorrow when they travel to Huntington to face Marshall at 3:00 p.m.