Maxx Yehl Scheduled to Return for WVU vs. K-State — Starting Rotation is Shuffled

A look at this weekend's starters for the Mountaineers.

WVU Athletics Communications

After missing a week due to some pain in his shoulder and bicep, West Virginia left-handed pitcher Maxx Yehl will return to the rotation this weekend vs. Kansas State and will get the ball to open the series on Friday night.

Yehl's absence threw a wrench into the Mountaineers' pitching plan last week, and then, to make matters worse, their first game in the series against Cincinnati went an extra four innings, which forced head coach Steve Sabins to roll out Chansen Cole for some work despite being scheduled to start the second game.

Getting Yehl back is massive for WVU's push to defend its Big 12 regular season title and to get back in the mix to host a regional. That said, he needs to return to his early-season form, where he was widely regarded as one of the most dominant pitchers in the country.

In his previous three outings before the Houston start, where he left early because of the arm, he gave up a combined 11 earned runs on 22 hits in 21.1 innings. Much of that damage came against UCF, he tagged him for five runs, but he allowed at least three to score in each of the starts.

In a way, the one week off could be a blessing in disguise for the Mountaineers as it allows them to shuffle the rotation and give the ball to their ace on Friday nights.

How the rest of the weekend sets up vs. Kansas State

WVU Athletics Communications

On Saturday, the Mountaineers will go with Chansen Cole (7-1, 2.91 ERA, 54 K, 24 BB, 55.2 IP), who has not allowed more than two runs in a start since BYU touched him up for six back on March 20th. He's not a big-time punch-out guy or flamethrower, but he knows how to work the zone and produce soft contact.

To wrap things up on Sunday, it will be Dawson Montesa, who has been West Virginia's Friday night guy for the majority of the season. His biggest problem has been not having command of the zone and often leaving pitches up and out over the plate. The lack of efficiency has led to the bullpen having to cover a lot of innings over the past two months. He has failed to go more than 4.1 innings in six of his last eight starts. Perhaps getting pushed to Sunday will help him get back on track.