West Virginia Pounds Penn State to a Mercy-Rule

The Mountaineers pummel the Nittany Lions

West Virginia sophomore Skylar King hits a home run in the first inning against Penn State. / Christopher Hall

Granville, WV – The West Virginia Mountaineers (29-18) hit six home runs, the second six home run game of the season, to hammer the Penn State Lions (21-21) Wednesday night 18-7.

“We had a great practice yesterday,” said WVU head coach Randy Mazey. “Kind of went back to some fundamental stuff offensively that we kind of got away from and kudos to our players they committed to what we were trying to teach them in practice yesterday and they carried it over into the game which isn’t all that easy to do. You live and die by the homer with this team.”

West Virginia University head coach Randy Mazey. / Christopher Hall

West Virginia sophomore Logan Sauve started an eight-run first inning, driving the first pitch of the bottom of the frame for a leadoff home run. Junior JJ Wetherholt followed with a single before Penn State freshman starting pitcher Mason Butash walked a pair of Mountaineer hitters to load the bases, then sophomore Sam White drove in a pair of runs with a line drive to the opposite field.

Butash gave up his third walk of the inning and junior Brodie Kresser cleared the bases with a deep drive over the left field wall for the grand slam.

Sophomore Skylar King put up the final run of the inning with a solo shot over the WVU bullpen for the 8-0 lead.

West Virginia added four more runs in the second after senior Reed Chumley ripped a leadoff home run off the scoreboard and Sam White followed with a solo shot. Skylar King put a sacrifice RBI fly to centerfield and Sauve singled up the middle for his second RBI of the evening and a 12-0 Mountaineer lead.

After only allowing a hit through two innings, West Virginia freshman starting pitcher Chase Meyer gave up a walk and three hits for three runs before head coach Randy Mazey called to the bullpen for redshirt freshman reliver Bryce Amos.  A wild pitch scored another Penn State run, then a two RBI double from junior Joe Jaconski and senior JT Marr ripped an RBI single to left centerfield to cap off a seven-run third inning and cut the Mountaineers’ lead to five, 12-7.

West Virginia freshman Chase Meyer hurls a pitch against Penn State in the first inning. / Christopher Hall

Meyer went 2.2 innings and struck out five in his first career start.

“He’s developing, he’s getting better,” Mazey said. “His stuff, as we like to call it, is Major League caliber stuff. In that first inning, there were several 96’s (MPH) on the scoreboard, and the curveballs, if you’re into spin rates, it’s spinning faster than a lot of Major League curveballs. So, if we can get him going in the postseason, conference tournaments sometimes you need four or five starters and it’s nice to know he’s capable of being one of those guys. He’s on track to be a superstar before he leaves here.”

The Mountaineers produced three runs in the bottom of the inning and did it with two outs on the board. Junior Grant Hussey doubled to centerfield for an RBI, Brodie Kresser ripped an RBI single to left field and sophomore Bemjamin Lumsden went back up the middle to score Kresser to extend the lead to eight,15-7.

West Virginia junior JJ Wetherholt added to the lead in the fourth with a 439-foot solo home run, and in the fifth, sophomore Ellis Garcia smacked a two-RBI double off the left field wall to push the lead to eleven, 18-7.

West Virginia junior JJ Wetherholt doubles against Penn State. / Christopher Hall

Mountaineer relievers Maxx Yiehl, Tommy Beam, and Aidan Smith combined for 4.1 scoreless innings to maintain the mercy-rule as West Virgnia cruises to an 18-7 victory.

“I was stressed going into this one because our pitching staff was a little bit stressed,” Mazey said. “We needed this game to go kind of like it went - seven innings and use some guys that haven’t pitched much and rest some guys that need rest because the way the season has gone with our staff, its been stressful on a couple of guys and fatigue sets in and soreness sets in and you got try to manage it the best you can. So, we need a game just like this.”

West Virginia is back in action Friday night for the first of a three-game Big 12 Conference series against Kansas State. Game one is set for 6:30 p.m. EST, game two is slated for Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and the series finale is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. All the action will stream on ESPN+.