QND graduate Kirn earns first college save to send West Virginia to NCAA super-regional

CLEMSON, S.C. — When Griffin Kirn was pulled from Friday’s NCAA regional opener after throwing 118 pitches, there was enough left in his tank if he was needed for an inning of relief the remainder of the weekend.

Well, the West Virginia baseball team needed him. And Kirn delivered on cue.

The Quincy Notre Dame graduate was summoned out of the bullpen for the ninth inning Sunday night after the second-seeded Mountaineers rallied with six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a one-run lead over third-seeded Kentucky at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

The left-handed Kirn, a former Great Lakes Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year while playing at Quincy University, allowed a one-out single before striking out the Wildcats’ Patrick Herrera and getting Ryan Schwartz to line out to center field to preserve a 13-12 victory and send the Mountaineers to the super-regional next weekend.

Kirn threw 16 pitches — 12 were strikes — for the first save of his college career.

Kirn started Friday’s game against Kentucky, going 7.1 innings with one earned run and five hits allowed and seven strikeouts. He was pulled with the game tied at 3 and the Mountaineers won it 4-3 with a walkoff sacrifice fly by Armani Guzman.

West Virginia (43-14) will play the winner of the Baton Rouge Regional in the best-of-three super regional beginning this Friday. LSU and Little Rock were playing in the Baton Rouge Regional final.