Charleston, W. Va – Charleston baseball avoided elimination on Thursday afternoon after handily defeating cross-town rival West Virginia State at GoMart Ballpark 17-2.
 
Charleston's ace, Cole Peschl, was dominant on the hill for the second straight week against the Yellow Jackets. After being Atlantic Region pitcher of the week for his last outing against the Yellow Jackets, he performed almost as well the second time around. The sophomore threw five innings with just one run allowed and eight strikeouts en route to his team leading ninth win on the mound.
 
The offense showed their typical firepower as well, putting up 17 runs on 18 hits with 10 of those being extra base hits.
 
Charleston's top six hitters combined to go 16 for 28 in the game with six doubles, two home runs, a triple, seven walks, and 14 runs.
 
Clay Hale had the team's highest RBI total of the season in the contest. The veteran knocked in six runs as he went 3 for 5 with two doubles, and a walk. He increased his average to .344 on the season and third on the team in slugging percentage (.711) and second in on base percentage (.516).
 
Carter Rust led the offense in hits, going 4 for 5 with two RBI, a run scored, a triple and a walk.
 
Kyle West and Tyler Dellerman tallied two hits including a home run and three RBI each. West also scored three times and walked twice while Dellerman scored twice and walked once.
 
Drew Klaserner was 3 for 5 with a team high four runs, two doubles, a walk and a stolen base.
 
Austin Dzierwa showed well in his first relief outing since the 15^th of April. The senior worked two scoreless innings with a couple of strikeouts while allowing just one baserunner in his appearance.  
 
The Golden Eagles scored runs in six of the nine innings with the most coming in the final inning where they tallied six en route to the elimination of West Virginia State.
 
They will have to wait until tomorrow morning as West Liberty and Wheeling face off in the early game at 10 a.m. The winner of that will decide how MEC tournament bracket plays out from that point. If Wheeling wins Charleston will not play until Saturday at 11 a.m. but if West Liberty wins, they will play on Friday at the Welch Athletic complex against the loser of Frostburg State and Concord.