West Virginia baseball faced a little bump in the road on Wednesday night.
After the Mountaineers went on the road this past weekend and swept Kansas to put them in first place in the Big 12, reality hit them hard, as they lost to in-state foe Marshall, 3-2 in extra inning.
Two days later, WVU has a chance to put the Marshall loss behind them and pick up where they left off on Sunday in Lawrence, when they host No. 17 UCF.
The Knights are in their first year in the Big 12 and are 21-9 and 8-7 in Big 12 play. UCF is coming off a series win over Kansas State last weekend, and they hold series wins over Texas Tech, Kansas, and Oklahoma State this season.
WVU comes into Friday night at 19-13 and 8-4 in league play. While they are tied for first in the Big 12, this series is more meaningful than just the shot at staying atop the Big 12 standings.
As the postseason picture starts to get more clear, WVU’s RPI ranking matters more and more.
For West Virginia, two seasons ago, they went 32-22 overall, and 14-10 in Big 12 play. This helped WVU land at No. 49 in the RPI, and left them on the outside looking in. That season, WVU was 6-11 in Quad 1 games (teams ranked in the top 50) and 13-6 in Quad 2 games (teams ranked 51-100). That season as well, WVU had only five losses against Quad 3 and 4 opponents combined.
As of today, WVU is currently No. 40 in the RPI. Their sweep over Kansas helped a good amount, but the loss against Marshall was considered a Quad 3 loss for the Mountaineers.
In addition, the quadrants have changed, taking into account home field advantage and changing how games are assigned to the different quadrants.
For WVU against UCF this weekend though, it’s simple. UCF is ranked No. 7 in the RPI, the highest of any Big 12 school. All three games are Quad 1 opportunities for the Mountaineers. WVU has only played six games that are considered to be Quad 1, and are 3-3 in those games. Win the series and it helps your own RPI if you’re West Virginia, but it also helps that Quad 1 area.
Judging by the current RPI rankings, WVU currently has nine Quad 1 games remaining outside of UCF, and only three of those nine are at home. UCF is a huge opportunity to defend your home turf and get quality wins and stay near the top of the league race.
If WVU is going to want to do that though, they are going to need a bounce back outing from Aidan Major on Friday night. Major gave up five runs which tied for the most he’s given up in an outing this season. Major however, has been really good at home at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
In three starts at home this season, Major has tossed 22.0 innings, striking out 30 batters, walking five, and allowing only seven earned runs. In just Major’s last two road starts, he’s thrown just 7.0 total innings, striking out four, walking 11, and giving up nine earned runs.
UCF has a 4.18 team ERA, which ranks second in the Big 12. They’ve given up the fewest amount of earned runs this season, and have the lowest batting average against.
West Virginia’s lineup will look to continue to swing it like they did last week against Kansas, as they returned JJ Wetherholt and Logan Sauve to the lineup. Those two at the top of the Mountaineer batting order went a combined 14-for-31 (.452) with 8 RBIs against Kansas.
WVU also smashed eight home runs as a team in the series, including six in their win on Saturday.
Pitching Probables
Friday
WVU: Aidan Major — 3-2, 4.02 ERA, 55 k, 21 BB, 47.0 IP
UCF: Ben Vespi — 2-1, 5.00 ERA, 34 K, 13 BB, 36.0 IP
Saturday
WVU: Derek Clark — 3-0, 1.70 ERA, 31 K, 8 BB, 37.0 IP
UCF: Dom Stagliano — 1-2, 3.74 ERA, 26 K, 12 BB, 29.2 IP
Sunday
WVU: TBA
UCF: TBA
First Pitch and TV
All three games will be televised and be able to be streamed on ESPN+.
Friday’s game is set for 6:30 p.m., Saturday’s game is at 4:00 p.m., and Sunday’s game is set for 1:00 p.m.
