On March 15th, the West Virginia Mountaineers will begin a three game series against the Ohio State Buckeyes at the newly named Kendrick Family Ballpark in Granville, West Virginia.
The Mountaineers currently hold a 10-7 overall record with a series split against Western Kentucky, a series win against BIG 12 opponent BYU and a 11-2 win against in-state rival Marshall.
The Mountaineers this season have faced a good amount of woes in this young season which include the rough pitching start to the year or the injuries they have faced to star players like JJ Wetherholt, Logan Sauve and Grant Hussey.
With that amount of starpower being out so early in the season, a couple of different guys have had to step up in their absence. A big name that has stepped up would be Ellis Garcia who in all 17 games has started and batted an impressive .303 Batting Average along with 20 Hits, 13 RBIs and 4 doubles. The Sophomore is currently ranked tied for 1st in the hits category for the Mountaineers and 4th in batting average, only behind Sam White, Logan Sauve and JJ Wetherholt.
The Mountaineer pitching staff has improved in the last couple of weeks with the team only allowing an average of just under 3.5 runs per game in the last 7 played. The pitching staff is led by Aidan Major, the normal Friday starter this season, who currently holds a 3-0 record with a 3.12 ERA in 26 innings pitched.
The Mountaineer bullpen is led by Maxx Yehl who holds a 2.70 ERA in 7 appearances and Hambleton Oliver who holds a 1.88 ERA in 6 appearances.
The Ohio State Buckeyes currently hold a 7-7 record with a recent series split to Arizona State, a series loss to Cal Poly and Two wins in the Las Vegas College Baseball Classic against California and Oklahoma.
This Buckeye team is currently led by Graduate Student Mitchell Okuley who holds a .353 batting average with 18 hits and 9 RBIs as well as Sophomore Henry Kaczmar who has a .339 batting average with 19 hits and 10 RBIs. Kaczmar currently ranks 2nd on his team in batting average for starters and 1st on the team for hits
Buckeye pitching has been somewhat lackluster this season, with the team holding a combined 5.90 ERA. That stat however can be deceiving as 4 Buckeye relievers are dragging down the team ERA with the best of those four holding a 27.00 ERA in 1.1 innings pitched. Three of the Buckeyes main starters however are playing relatively well with the best of the three being Sophomore leftie Landon Beidelschies who currently holds a 3.43 ERA in 21 innings pitched.
If the Buckeyes want to win this series, they will have to cut down on the runs being allowed by the pitching which will not be easy when facing this Mountaineer team that has been hitting very well in this young season.
U92 will be broadcasting the game starting at 6:00 PM with first pitch being set at 6:30 PM. On the call will be Jonathan Hamilton on play-by-play and Gabe Schon on color commentary. The broadcast can be heard on 91.7 FM locally, u92themoose.com, an Alexa-At-Home Device, or the RadioFX and TuneIn apps.
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics