OMAHA, Neb. — There were certain situations Troy’s pitchers certainly wanted to avoid against West Virginia, and letting the sixth and seventh batters reach base with no outs before watching Ben Lumsden saunter from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box was surely near the top of the list.
That happened in Friday’s game between the two, and that’s as good a reason as any why the Mountaineers advanced. But it wasn’t Lumsden, the school’s all-time leader in postseason RBIs, who did the damage. He facilitated the damage with sacrifice bunts before Tyrus Hall swung the wrecking ball with a pair of two-run base hits in a 7-5 win that knocked the Trojans into the loser’s bracket.
“It’s just winning baseball,” Lumsden said. “First and second, no outs, that’s what’s going to get the job done. Getting the bunt down and Tyrus delivering both times, as great as the bunts are, the guy behind you has to deliver. He did that twice today. That’s unbelievable, but that’s just winning baseball.”…