Georgia State pushed No. 14 West Virginia to extra innings before falling 5-3 in 10 innings on Opening Day Friday at the GSU Baseball Complex, spoiling strong pitching performances by starter Ryan Watson and reliever Joseph Brandon.
 
Playing extra innings on Opening Day for the third straight year, the Panthers (0-1) tied the game at 3-3 on Branson Bowling's pinch hit, RBI-single in the sixth inning. That was still the score in the top of the 10^th inning when the Mountaineers' Vince Ippoliti's two-run homer was the difference.
 
GSU starter Ryan Watson, the right-hander from Sugar Hill, Ga., pitched five strong innings, allowing two runs on four hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.
 
Brandon, the sophomore reliever, pitched 3.2 scoreless innings.
 
Georgia State scored the first run of 2021 in the bottom of the first inning as true freshman Dalton Pearson (John's Creek High School) drew a bases loaded walk in his first collegiate at-bat.
 
West Virginia answered on Matt McCormick's solo home run in the second.
 
Shortstop Will Mize, a second-year freshman from Brookwood High School, regained the lead for the Panthers with an RBI single in the third to score Griffin Cheney, who reached on a two-base error. That hit extended Mize's hitting streak to 12 games, going back to last season.
 
The Mountaineers tied the game in the fourth and then took a 3-2 lead with a bases-loaded walk in the sixth.
 
In the bottom of the sixth, Mize and Ashby Smith led off with singles, and with two outs, Bowling delivered his pinch hit single up the middle to score Cheney and knot the game at 3-all.
 
A great defensive play in the seventh inning kept the score tied as Cheney took a relay from center fielder Kyle Riesselmann and gunned down the runner at the plate, who was attempting to score from first on the double.
 
Smith, a transfer from Gulf Coast State College, went 3-for-4 in his GSU debut, while Mize added two hits.
 
The series continues with a doubleheader Saturday at the GSU Baseball Complex, beginning at 1 p.m.