West Virginia Returns to the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

The West Virginia University baseball program went 3-1 last week and for their efforts, returned to the USA TODAY Sports baseball coaches poll at No. 25.

West Virginia remained 23rd in the NCBWA poll and moved up five spots in Perfect Game while D1baseball has yet to rank the Mountaineers and Baseball America left them out of the rankings for the second consecutive week.

The Mountaineers began their week with a 7-0 win over Marshall. Redshirt junior Chase Swain recorded his second home run of the season on his way to a two-RBI day and junior Skylar King helped lead the way with a pair of RBI.

West Virginia traveled to Provo, Utah to take on the BYU Cougars for its second road series in the first three weeks of the Big 12 Conference schedule.

BYU continued its momentum after a road series win at Cincinnati and rolled it into a dominating series opening win, 14-5.

The Mountaineers got back on track in game two, avenging the loss with a resounding 20-6 decision.

In the series finale, West Virginia appeared it was going to pound the Cougars once again, jumping out to a 7-0 lead. However, BYU scored 15 unanswered runs in two innings to take the eight-run advantage. Undeterred, the Mountaineers continued to swing the bats. scoring 12 straight runs, while the bullpen cooled the Cougars and take the series with the 19-16 victory.

Jace Rinehart went 4-11 at the plate with a home run and eight RBI in the two wins over BYU. The senior is currently leading the team in home runs (5) and RBI (28) and is tied with junior Sam White with nine doubles. He is hitting .359 on the season, which sits third on the team.

Senior Grant Hussey was 6-14 with seven runs, two RBI and seven runs in the weekend series.

Kyle West was 4-5 with two doubles, three RBI, and three runs in the series finale. The senior holds a .339 batting average, two home runs, seven doubles and 14 RBI.

Sam White leads the team with a .400 batting average, with three home runs and 26 RBI. However, the junior was sidelined in the BYU series with a separated shoulder. There is no timetable for his return.

Overall, there are nine Mountaineers batting over .300 that meet the threshold of 75% of the games played.

As a team, West Virginia owns a .319 batting average, which ranks second in the Big 12 and the pitching staff is second in the league with a team ERA of 3.75.

West Virginia in the national rankings

D1Baseball: NR

USA TODAY Sports: 25

NCBWA: 23

Baseball America: NR

Perfect Game: 11

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