No. 13 WVU baseball celebrates its comeback win over No. 23 UCF, 11-10, with a walk-off single. (Dominion Post/Ron Rittenhouse)

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia baseball seemed out of it. UCF was clicking on all cylinders and had a 10-2 lead in the sixth inning. Rich Rodriguez said after the Backyard Brawl win, “Mountaineers never quit,” and the Mountaineers showed it once again in Game 2 Saturday afternoon, especially against the current top team in the Big 12, No. 23 UCF.

Slowly, WVU clawed its way back, and in the bottom of the ninth, the lead was just 10-9, with the bases loaded and two outs. Matthew Graveline came to the plate. Graveline sat pretty much the entire game and took his first at-bat in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter. Head coach Steve Sabins said there was a chance Graveline wasn’t even going to be at the field because he had been battling with the flu.

But in his second at-bat, Graveline had the opportunity of winning the game, or at least tying it. On a 2-0 count, Graveline drove a single up the middle to score two runs, completing the comeback to beat UCF 11-10. WVU kept its undefeated series streak alive.

“I’m always ready,” Graveline said. “You have to be ready to get up to the plate and get the job done… I figured he was going to go back to the heater to challenge me, especially with the bases loaded. Can’t walk the tying run in. Just got a good pitch to hit. Put a good swing on it.”

WVU forced a rubber match on Sunday, which has a first pitch of noon and is streamed on ESPN+, to keep its perfect series streak rolling. WVU lost the first game 5-0. The Mountaineers moved to 21-6 overall and 8-3 in the Big 12. UCF is 19-9 on the season and is just a game ahead of WVU at 9-2.

“Exciting win,” Sabins said. “I thought the staff, the players, everybody just stayed connected. It’s easy to say that when you lose, but it’s obviously evident when you win, and you have such a large comeback. Can’t do that without people just being focused and intentful and continuing to fight.”

It took a lot to set up the opportunity for Graveline. The Mountaineers were in a 10-2 hole at the top of the sixth, and the offense looked dormant through five innings, with UCF’s starting pitcher Mateo Gray looking elite. Finally, the gears started turning, and Gray started to wear down.

Matt Ineich, who batted fifth instead of the leadoff, hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the sixth, 10-4.

Instead, Armani Guzman batted leadoff, and for more lineup changes: Sean Smith played left for the first time this season and Zahir Barjam was the designated hitter. Sabins said he really wanted to get Barjam in the lineup and felt really good about it.

In the leadoff spot, Guzman went 3-for-5 and had an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to make it 10-5. Gavin Kelly came to the plate with two on and roped one to the left field wall. Suddenly, WVU was back in the game 10-7.

The Mountaineers loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth with one out. Ineich hit one to right field, and UCF’s right fielder dropped the ball in the gap, scoring two. Ineich advanced to second, and Paul Schoenfeld was at third. WVU was down just a run, 10-9.

“When Matty (Ineich) first hit it, I thought it was a homer,” Guzman said. “But then I remember we play at the Ken and the wind blows all the time. My job at third was just to tag. Kelly did a good job at second base, freezing, reading the play. Paul did a great job, as well, going as far as he could. Base running-wise, I thought we executed really good. We kind of caught a break in that moment. Things hadn’t gone our way, and that was huge.”

Graveline came in to win the game. He had two hits in both of his at-bats. Kelly was 2-for-3. All three of WVU’s pinch hitters had a hit. WVU’s offense had 14 hits and was a lot better towards the end of the game at hitting with runners in scoring position.

It looked bad early, and UCF’s offense was rolling in the fourth inning. The Knights’ John Smith doubled to tie the game 1-1. UCF added two more for a three-run inning. UCF continued in the next inning, adding three more, and then four more in the sixth. It was 10-2 after six UCF at-bats.

Cayden Gaskin, Smith and DeAmez Ross had three hits apiece, and there were two hitters with two hits. Through two games, UCF has scored 15 runs. The Knights looked like the better team early and had a whopping 15 hits on the way to the big offensive day, even with WVU’s ace Maxx Yehl on the mound.

WVU scored two early to help Yehl, and it was a 3-2 game at one point. Sean Smith contributed to the first two runs. He hit a big homer in the fourth inning, 435 feet, to make it a one-run game, 3-2. He also contributed to the first run of the game, reaching on an error to bring across the first run of the game in the first inning.

Yehl didn’t have his best stuff on the mound. He pitched four innings, allowed seven hits and had five earned runs, which was the most in any of his eight starts. Yehl has allowed eight runs in his last two starts. Yehl loaded the bases to bring in Reese Bassinger.

“He’s been Superman for us,” Sabins said. “Today, he was more human. He went four innings and kept us in the game. We ended up winning the game that he pitched in, so that’s all a starter can do. He just wasn’t quite sharp today.”

Bassinger closed out the inning but allowed an extra run. Bassinger allowed two hits and struck out one. Mac Stiffler pitched an out in the next inning and allowed four runs in that span, letting up three hits. Bryson Thacker relieved him and cleaned up the last two outs. The duo of J.T. Huether and Carson Estridge quieted UCF’s offense for three innings, which, with the offense, made the comeback possible.

Chansen Cole is on the mound for Game 3 of the series. Cole had a strong showing against Arizona State in the last series. He’ll need a big game to potentially tie UCF for the best record in the conference.

“I don’t ever focus on that stuff,” Sabins said in regard to tying UCF. “I’m always like win or lose today, are we putting our guys in the right situation?”