West Virginia Receives Boost with Key Starters Return

The West Virginia Mountaineers got some vital pieces back in the 7-1 win over the Morehead State Eagles Tuesday night. Naturally, the Mountaineers face an uphill battle following a seven-day program pause due to not meeting the Big 12 Conference threshold from COVID-19. They were without several key members in the first series back over the weekend, where they dropped the three-game series to Central Michigan, 1-2.

West Virginia penciled in several freshmen into the lineup. Although they fell short and took a pounding in game two, they continued to battle and salvaged game three and avoiding the sweep after freshman, and Mikey Kluska hit a two-run walk-off home run in the tenth to capture the program's fifth win on the season.

On Tuesday, West Virginia saw the return of veteran Paul McIntosh and fifth-year graduate transfer Hudson Byorick in the first game of a two-game midweek series. Hudson was moved to the two-spot after starting the season as the leadoff hitter and McIntosh to the third spot, and their presence in the lineup was a difference maker early.

In the bottom of the third and with two outs, and the Mountaineers came back around to the top of the order. Austin Davis reached after getting pelted in the hip, Byorick hit a line drive into the shallow left-center. Then, Will Lozinak wanted no piece of McIntosh pitching around the slugger and delivering four straight balls, creating another opportunity for Kluska. Now, with the bases loaded and a pitching change after Lozinak’s first pitch was a ball, Kluska flared the 1-0 pitch opposite field down the right field line and rattled in the corner for a triple and gave West Virginia the early 3-0 lead. Victor Scott and Dominic Ragazzo produced back-to-back singles, with a Scott steal in-between to extend the lead to 5-0.

“Obviously, you throw him [McIntosh] in the three-hole, and Hudson Byorick comes back, and he’s in the two-hole. He’s a fantastic player, he’s a fifth-year player, and so our team changed quickly,” said West Virginia assistant coach Steve Sabins.

McIntosh, who is currently in his third season at West Virginia, as much as the Mountaineers need his offense, his presence behind the plate is just as important.

“Having Paul McIntosh behind the plate - we’ve had multiple catchers back there that have done a fantastic job but the presence that he brings – think he’s a 23-year-old that is calm that is confident that really manages the pitching staff and everybody on our team looks to him and so having him back there is a complete game changer,” said Sabins.

The Mountaineers turned to freshman Ben Hampton making just his third appearance on the season, and he delivered three scoreless innings before giving up a solo home run to leadoff hitter Bryce Hensor. On the season, Hampton has only given up three hits, one run, and walked one in five innings.

“He just set the tone. It’s not easy to do what he’s done. He goes out as a freshman and has been dominant up to this point,” said Sabins. “We kept Ben under 50 pitches today - that was the goal and the game plan going in because depending on whether or not Adam Tulloch and a few others, he might be a part of some of the weekend games. And so, normally, if a guy was pitching like he was pitching, he would have been back out in the fifth, but today we knew we had to keep him at a little bit lower pitch count, and we also had Tyler Strechay coming in behind him… We were really glad to see him get right back to what he does, and that’s pound the zone, have multiple breaking balls for strikes and really compete.”

Strechay tossed three scoring innings and only allowed two hits before Tim Wynia took the mound in the eighth, and Ben Abernathy closed it out to combine for two hitless innings.

West Virginia tacked on two more runs in the eighth after Byorick and McIntosh delivered back-to-back singles - Kluska advanced them to third on a groundball back to the pitcher – Byorick scored on a wild pitch before Victor Scott roped a double into left-center to give West Virginia the 7-1 advantage.

“It’s kind of been the motto the last week or so is “hang tight guys hang tight we got some calvary coming the army’s getting stronger. We got to keep it together - we got to get better in the meantime, and I think we have,” said Sabins.

West Virginia and Morehead State will meet for the second game of the two-game series Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 EST and streaming on ESPN+.

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