By TOM ZEBOLD

USF Senior Writer

The Bulls put together a late rally but couldn't cash in on a huge opportunity in the Big East on Thursday night.

Luis Llerena and James Ramsay had back-to-back RBI hits in a two-run eighth inning, but USF came up empty handed at the plate in the ninth inning of a 6-3 loss at West Virginia. First-place St. John's started the day a game ahead of USF and lost to Seton Hall, which meant a Bulls win would have put them into a tie atop the conference standings with two games to go in the regular season.

Andrew Barbosa (7-4) had his hot string of starts snapped after giving up four runs (three earned) on nine hits in five innings.

USF's bats tied the score up at 1 in the top of the third when Buddy Putnam was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. The Mountaineers (22-31, 8-17) responded with two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and they led, 6-1, through seven innings.

Alex Mendez got the Bulls' rally started with leadoff double in the eighth and Llerena hit a run-scoring double to left-center field. Ramsay followed with an RBI single up the middle to cap off the scoring. Mendez and Ramsay were the only Bulls to collect more than one hit.

The Bulls (33-19, 16-9) will look to bounce back in the second game of the series that's slated for a 7:05 p.m. start Friday in Morgantown.