The 24th-ranked WVU Mountaineers (31-4) will host the University of Cincinnati Bearcats (21-15) in a three-game conference duel Thursday through Saturday in Kendrick Family Ballpark.
The Mountaineers come into this series on an 11-game winning streak and are first in the Big 12 Conference with a 10-3 record. The Bearcats hop into Granville off a rivalry loss to the Xavier University Musketeers and are seventh in the Big 12 with an 8-7 record.
In the Mountaineers’ previous game against the Marshall University Thundering Herd in Huntington, W. Va., third baseman Chase Swain stole home in the top of the ninth inning with two outs to secure a 5-4 win. Pitcher Carson Estridge picked up the win (3-0), throwing 1.2 innings, allowing an egg in hits and striking out three Herd hitters.
WVU has a heavy-hitting offense, no qualified hitter has below a .280 batting average and the only below .300 is the defensive-first utilityman Armani Guzman. Outfielder Jace Rinehart leads the team in home runs with six, followed by catcher Logan Sauve and first baseman Grant Hussey with five and outfielder Kyle West with four.
The WVU pitching staff has given up four or less runs in seven of their last eight games. Starter Griffin Kirn leads the team in strikeouts with 55, followed by relievers/openers Chase Meyer with 39 and Jack Kartsonas with 32.
WVU has lost two straight games against the Bearcats and the two ball clubs are an even 19-19 against each other. WVU is 12-6 all-time against Cincinnati at home.
WVU is 12-3 in Kendrick Family Ballpark this season, with losses to Kennesaw State University and the University of Arizona. WVU is 19-1 away, with a loss to Brigham Young University.
Cincinnati is 13-4 at home, but 8-10 away.
U92 The Moose will bring live coverage of the full series with Logan Powell, Brayden Laslo and Alex Silverman on the call inside Kendrick Family Ballpark.
The first pitch for the game on Thursday, April 17 will be 6:30 p.m., and starting at 6:00 Brett Berner, Dom Brusco, Conor Bratchford and Benjamin Stautzenbach will be on the pregame show. They will return after the game for the postgame show.
The first pitch for the game on Friday, April 18 will be 6:30 p.m., and starting at 6:00 Conor Bratchford will bring the pregame and postgame shows.
The first pitch for the game on Saturday, April 19 will be 2:00 p.m. and the broadcasters in the booth will have a small pregame show prior to first pitch.
The broadcast can be heard locally on 91.7 FM, u92themoose.com, an Alexa At-Home Device, or the RadioFX and TuneIn apps.
Photo sourced from WVU Athletics.