Three Mountaineer Seniors Have an Opportunity to Pick up Where They Left Off
Braden Zarbnisky, Kevin Brophy, and Dillon Meadows are the only three seniors on the 2020 West Virginia Mountaineer baseball roster. At the end of March, the NCAA ruled that all spring sport athletes will retain their senior season after the COVID-19 pandemic ended their season abruptly.
Zarbnisky was enjoying a phenomenal senior campaign after having to sit out the 2019 season due to an injury. The left fielder was carrying a .431 batting average and, with 13 stolen bases on the season, he was on pace to shatter the WVU season stolen base record set by Mickey Mamarella in 1986 (29) with an average of .8 stolen bases per game, Zarbnisky was looking at around 43 stolen bases on the year (He came close in 2018 during his junior season with 27).
The right-handed hurler was also successful in his relief duties only giving up a lone hit and no runs through 4.2 innings pitched in four appearances. The Marietta, Georgia native enjoyed success in his junior season as well after earning an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention. He led the team with 42 walks and 27 stolen bases and rocked a solid .259 batting average.
Kevin Brophy, who hails from Randolph, New Jersey, has started 79 games and made 116 appearances with the Mountaineers. The infielder was hitting .246 and had registered 15 hits in 61 at-bats when the season came to a halt.
Brophy was third on the team in home runs his sophomore year with six dingers and also was second on the team in slugging percentage at .566.
The slugger led West Virginia with a .440 on-base percentage and also recorded a team second .300 batting average his freshman season for second-best on the team with players with under 100 at-bats.
Dillon Meadows has served as a right-handed pitcher for the Mountaineers for three years now after attending Weatherford College and TCU in his first two seasons. In his short-lived senior season, Meadows only allowed one hit in seven innings of work out of the bullpen. He also whiffed nine batters including a four-strikeout performance against VCU on Feb. 28.
In his three seasons in the gold and blue, Meadows has only allowed 21 runs and 28 hits in 40 innings pitched as well as carrying a 4.50 ERA and striking out 44 batters in the process.
While at Weatherford College the season prior to coming to Morgantown, Meadows helped the school in reaching the championship of the NJCAA Region V Tournament.
Now, it's a matter of whether or not these veteran Mountaineers will get a call during the MLB draft or come back for their final season on the old gold and blue.
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