As Grant Hussey hit the first base bag, he jumped in the air, like a little leaguer who just hit their very first home run.
For Hussey, it wasn’t his first home run and it certainly won’t be his last, but it was a home run that will live in the West Virginia record books for a long time. Hussey’s blast in the fifth inning which landed in the right field bleachers of PNC Park was his 36th of his career.
“I looked at it at the start of the season and it was always a goal of mine. I remember looking at it sophomore year and seeing if I was close. Went through a little spell of no home runs here the past month or so but I felt like a little kid out there today,” Hussey said. “That was probably the most emotion I’ve ever had running around the bases because I’m not too much of an emotional person.”
Hussey tied the record with an opposite field home run in the first, and then shattered the record in the fifth.
“It’s definitely cool. Hitting a home run in a big league ballpark is pretty awesome. Would’ve been cool if it was at [home], but there was a butt load of people here tonight that got to see it,” Hussey said. “I did a pretty good job not thinking about it. I wasn’t really stressing over it or anything. Just keep adding on to it I guess.”
For West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey, he’s seen every one of Hussey’s blasts over his three seasons at WVU. It’s meaningful for Mazey even more so because Hussey is a Parkersburg, W.Va., native, and him being an in-state kid and breaking the record means more.
“Look how many players have played at West Virginia in the last 100 years that were really, really, good players that don’t have that record. And here comes Grant from our state and our crowd it seems like gravitates toward West Virginia kids because we don’t get that many,” Mazey said. “When an in-state kid does something like that, it just makes the whole state proud of him and proud of the program. We’re all proud of him and I’m actually glad it’s behind him now so he can just worry about smashing baseballs and not think about it any more.”
26 of Hussey’s 36 home runs have come away from home in his career. For Hussey, he said there’s an easy explanation for that, but he’s not worried about that.
“We call [Kendrick Family Ballpark] a graveyard,” Hussey said. “There’s not many home runs hit there unless you’re Kyle West. It’s hard to be a left-handed hitter, the wind is not in your favor.”
