Over the weekend, the WVU baseball team played the role of road warriors, going out to Tucson, Arizona, picking up two out of three games against the Arizona Wildcats — a team who qualified for the NCAA Tournament in the 2022 season. In the process, head coach Randy Mazey picked up his 300th win at the helm for West Virginia.
With Mazey losing speed merchants Victor Scott and Austin Davis in the offseason, some doubted that the ultra-aggressive style of play known as “Mazey-Ball” might fall by the wayside.
The 2023 West Virginia team has proven that that’s not the case, as the Mountaineers are 23-for-23 in stolen base attempts on the season and stole nine bags in nine attempts in the weekend against the Wildcats.
Game one of the series brought late-game heroics, as sophomore JJ Wetherholt stole home with two outs and two strikes in the top of the 11th inning to help WVU get an early hold on the series.
Game one also brought another solid performance from junior pitcher Ben Hampton, who pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three earned runs.
On the offensive side, WVU was led by Wetherholt, who went 3-for-6 with two runs batted in, two runs scored and of course, the game-winning steal. The Mountaineers also saw first baseman Sam White go 4-for-5 with a run scored, and a single in the sixth inning from Braden Barry gave the junior two runs batted in.
Carlson Reed got the win for the Mountaineers on the mound in game one, as the junior reliever shut Arizona down in the 10th and 11th inning to lock up the win.
Game two saw a dominating pitching performance from fifth-year senior Blaine Traxel. In his second start as a Mountaineer, the Cal State Northridge transfer went the distance, pitching nine scoreless innings while holding Arizona to just five hits and one run.
Traxel stole the show without doubt in game two, but JJ Wetherholt again impressed at the plate, going 3-for-5 with a run batted in and a run scored while playing second base.
Dayne Leonard also had a hand in the WVU win from the plate, as the redshirt senior doubled home Barry and Wetherholt in the top of the fifth inning to extend the Mountaineer lead to 4-1.
After two strong games on Friday and Saturday, the Arizona bats finally woke up during the Sunday finale, as the Wildcats scored 15 runs to avoid the sweep.
Tulane transfer Grant Siegel struggled against the Wildcats on Sunday, as the sophomore right-hander gave up nine hits and six earned runs in three innings.
Despite the off game, Wetherholt kept his early season hot streak going, as the Mars, Pennsylvania native hit an opposite-field home run on the second at-bat of the game.
First baseman Grant Hussey also hit his first home run of the season, as the Parkersburg, West Virginia native led off the fifth inning with a no-doubt shot to dead center to cut the Arizona lead to 7-3.
WVU could never slow down the Arizona bats, as the Wildcats took game three by a score of 15-5.
Despite the ugly finale, WVU took a big step forward with a series win over a strong Pac-12 team that won 39 ballgames last season. The Mountaineers now move to 4-3 on the young season.
Before Mazey’s crew returns from the trip out west, the Mountaineers will challenge the Arizona Diamondbacks of the MLB in an exhibition game while the Diamondbacks start up their Spring Training season.
While the Mountaineers might not see the likes of Ketel Marte and Zac Gallen, the team will most definitely get to face strong competition and take on some new challenges before traveling to William and Mary for a Friday afternoon game.
