The Mountaineers Get a Major Win over Ball State

West Virginia picked up its first win since May 14th, nearly three weeks ago, and squashed a six-game losing streak with a resounding 13-5 win over Ball State Saturday afternoon.

We haven’t felt this good in a little while,” said head coach Randy Mazey.

West Virginia’s last win came in the home finale for a series clinching decision versus Texas Tech, and it was the last time J.J. Wetherholt hit a home run. On Saturday, the sophomore lifted a three-run home run in the third inning to give the Mountaineers a 3-1 lead.

Ball State responded in the bottom half of the inning. The Cardinals produced a run in the second after an errant throw from third put a runner on and eventually crossed home, a walk moved the runner into scoring position and Phillip Glasser collected the RBI.

Ben Hampton had been efficient through the first two innings, but Ball State was making solid contact right into the Mountaineer defense. However, in the third, the Cardinals hit the gaps, producing four runs on six hits with two outs on the board and was sparked by a double from Adam Tellier followed by five consecutive singles, for a 5-3 lead.

The situation was familiar. The Mountaineers held a 4-3 advantage the day prior in the opening round until Indiana scored three runs to take a two-run lead and West Virginia never recovered and ultimately fell 12-6.

On Saturday, West Virginia answered with four runs in the fourth with Dayne Leonard and Logan Sauve lifting home runs and Wetherholt registered his fourth RBI on the afternoon to go back up by a pair of runs.

Mazey shook up the batting order heading into the contest. Moving Wetherholt back to the top of the order and freshman Logan Sauve into the two-hole and Tevin Tucker dropped from the top to the bottom of the order.

“When you juggle the lineup, you move Logan up from the nine-hole to the two-spot that’s a different mentality,” said Mazey. “You don’t put guys in spots in the lineup for the same reason all the time. You just move them around to take pressure off of them and never put a slow guy in front of a fast guy, that type of thing.”

“We don’t have superstars other than J.J., we just have a bunch of guys that are role players and just try to crank out at bats and get on base.,” said Mazey. “Some of them are hot some days and some of them aren’t and you hope they all get hot at the same time.”

Aidan Major took the mound in the bottom half of the fourth in place for Hampton and the sophomore kept the momentum in the Mountaineers dugout, striking out eight and allowing just one hit in five innings of work.

“What he did today, is what he’s done a bunch this year - come in when the starter gets in a little bit of trouble,” said Mazey. “He’s got a history of being a starting pitcher, so he can get into a pretty deep pitch count. Bringing him in the third or fourth and expecting him to finish the game is something he is capable of doing.”

West Virginia sophomore Grant Hussey hit a no-doubter in the seventh for his 14th home run of the year to give the Mountaineers a three-run cushion, and in the ninth, the Mountaineers put up five runs for the 13-5 rout.

“Everybody said the same thing, ‘you shouldn’t have lets us win one, we got a chance to get on a roll here.’ I think everyone is feeling pretty good,” said Mazey.

The Mountaineers will take on the host team Kentucky at noon in an elimination game after the Wildcats lost to Indiana Saturday night 5-3.

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