Coming off of his freshman season where he was an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection, West Virginia catcher Logan Sauve is a player WVU is hoping makes a considerable jump from year one to year two.
In 53 games played in 2023, Sauve started 43 both as a catcher and designated hitter. In 146 at-bats, he would pick up 39 hits, claiming 29 RBIs and four homers, batting .267. Sauve also walked 23 times last season, reaching base in 40 percent of his plate appearances.
“A really important part of this team is our catcher Logan Sauve, who split time with Dayne Leonard last year. He did a lot of DHing, he’ll be doing the majority of catching this year,” WVU baseball head coach Randy Mazey said Friday.
Behind the dish last season, Sauve made 119 putouts, with nine assists and made three errors, giving him a fielding percentage of .977.
“He (Sauve)’s a tremendous player and he could be a breakout type player I think. And probably the most important spot in our lineup this year is the guy that hits behind JJ (Wetherholt),” Mazey said. “So, it looks like Logan will be hitting behind JJ at least to start the season.”
Wetherholt, a player who is expected to be in the running for the No. 1 overall selection in this upcoming MLB draft, spoke highly of his teammate and said he saw improvements in him similar to what he experienced last offseason.
“Logan (Sauve) is definitely one of them. I think he’s had a ridiculous fall. He was pretty much neck and neck with me in like every category hitting-wise during the fall which is amazing to see,” Wetherholt said. “It really did remind me of kind of what I what happened to me last year in the fall. So that was great to see. He’s gotten better offensively, defensively and just became calmer so I’m super excited to see how he does I think he’s gonna have a great year.”
Sauve had 13 extra-base hits last season, but Wetherholt predicts a jump in that category for his catcher with Sauve progressively making louder contact.
“He just started barreling up more balls it was more contact, less strikeouts and it was loud contact. I think that was something for him last year is I mean he would barrel the ball every once in a while but I think he had some weak contact here and there,” Wetherholt said. “In the fall it was just missile after missile. His exit [velocity’s] were up his average exit [velocity] was up, everything. He was just pounding the ball which was really great to see. So, I’m sure he noticed it.”
