The Marshall University baseball team (21-15, 10-7 C-USA) heads to Morgantown, West Virginia to face West Virginia University Tuesday (20-18, 6-8 Big 12) at Monongalia County Ballpark.

Marshall heads into the game after a series win against Conference-USA opponent the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The Herd won two of the three games against the 49ers this past weekend.

Marshall was powered by seniors DJ Gee and Aaron Bossi and junior Tommy Lane at the plate, while senior pitcher Chase Boster dominated on the mound.

In the Herd’s last outing against the Mountaineers, Marshall lost in extra innings, 5-4.

The Herd l kept the lead most of the game until the top of the sixth when the Mountaineers tied the game, 1-1 However, Marshall bounced back and loaded the bases and scored two more runs to put them up, 3-1, in the bottom of the seventh.

In the top of the eighth, West Virginia took advantage of two Marshall errors and captured the lead, 4-3.

The Herd tied it up again in the bottom of the eighth. While Marshall had a chance to end the game in the bottom of the ninth with runners on the corners and one out, it was unable to score, which advanced the teams into extra innings.

The Mountaineers gained the lead in the 10th inning off another Herd error, which it could not recover from. 

Marshall led the game with 13 hits compared to West Virginia’s five.

The Herd has a .271 batting average heading into Tuesday’s game compared to the Mountaineers’ .278.

West Virginia has a better ERA compared to Marshall as well with a 3.93 team averaged compared to the Herd’s 4.68.

The Mountaineers are coming off a 12-6 win over the University of Oklahoma Sunday.

However, West Virginia has lost three straight series.

“We’re more than capable of beating this team,” Gee said. “It’s just a matter of keeping our mistakes to a minimum. Every time we play WVU we beat ourselves.”

Senior JD Hammer said he thinks the team’s pitching staff will play a major role in Tuesday’s game.

“Our pitching staff has done a great job so far this season,” Hammer said. “And (Josh) Shapiro did great last time against them. If we go out there and just place the ball and keep it low, I think we will be able to walk away with a win this week.”

First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Brittanie Fowler can be contacted at [email protected].