The long-awaited return of West Virginia baseball finally makes its way to Morgantown after an undefeated seven-game road stretch. The Mountaineers are set to make their home debut tomorrow in a one-game series against the Ohio Bobcats.
West Virginia is having a generational start to their season. The Mountaineers start their season 7-0 for the first time since 1966, tying the program’s record, meaning a win over Ohio would set the team record for the best start to a season ever.
West Virginia may be on a scorching hot start, but the same cannot be said about their opponents, the Ohio Bobcats. The Bobcats start their season with a 1-5 record, losing all three games in their opening series at Wofford, two of those games being within just one score. The adversity did not stop after the Wofford series.
The Bobcats traveled to Carrollton, Georgia where they faced off against West Georgia and lost their first game 0-3. However, the Bobcats bounced back for the second game and won their first game of the season 4-2. The feeling of victory did not last long for the Bobcats as they would end their series against West Georgia with yet another close 3-4 loss.
There are going to be key players that both teams will expect to step up in order to come out of this matchup victorious. For the Mountaineers, they will look towards their junior outfielder, Skylar King. King’s bat has been red-hot this season and shows no sign of slowing down as King boasts an insane .526 batting average and 1.456 OPS. Baseball is a team game and the Mountaineers cannot solely rely on King’s bat to get points on the board.
The Mountaineers will look to turn to Logan Sauve, Kyle West, and Sam White to have great outings at the plate. Furthermore, if the Mountaineers can clean up and execute on the defensive side of the ball so they are not within a one-score game, they will have a great chance to beat the scrappy Ohio Bobcats.
As for the Bobcats, they will look to lean on outfielder Trenton Neuer. Neuer currently has a batting average of .421 boasting an OPS of 1.026. However, he is not the Bobcat’s best bat. Freshman Matt Ineich boasts an incredible .474 batting average with a 1.026 OPS. For a freshman to put up those kind of stats is unheard of and could be a real threat for West Virginia’s defense.
The Mountaineers look to keep their undefeated winning streak alive as the country roads bring their talents back home to Kendrick Family Ballpark, with first pitch set for Wednesday at 2:00 p.m.
