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Big 12 Play Begins at No. 10 Baylor This Weekend
March 16, 2017 12:37 PM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University baseball team begins Big 12 Conference play at No. 10 Baylor this weekend, March 17-19, in Waco, Texas.
The series at Baylor Ballpark begins on Friday, March 17, at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, in a contest televised nationally on FS1. Saturday’s first pitch is set for 4 p.m. ET/3 p.m. CT, while the series finale on Sunday will begin at noon ET/11 a.m. CT.
The all-time series between WVU and BU is tied at 6-6, after West Virginia took two out of three last year in Morgantown. All 12 games have taken place since 2013, when WVU joined the Big 12. In Waco, Baylor holds a 4-2 lead in the series.
The Mountaineers (8-7) are coming off an 11-day, eight game roadtrip, that began with five games in Louisiana before a weekend series at Old Dominion. With a doubleheader on Friday, March 10, at ODU and Tuesday’s home opener against Morehead State postponed due to snow, West Virginia will have five days off before its series at Baylor.
WVU will face its second ranked opponent of the season after going 2-0 at No. 18 Coastal Carolina, the defending national champions, on Feb. 25 and 27.
The Bears (15-2) are coming off a series win against Houston and a 4-1 win at Dallas Baptist on Wednesday night. Baylor won its first 10 games to begin 2017, including eight at home, where BU is 10-1 on the season.
Three right-handers will start for West Virginia this weekend. In the opener, junior BJ Myers (1-1) will face senior righty Nick Lewis (3-0). Saturday, sophomore Michael Grove (1-1) will take the mound against junior right-hander Montana Parsons (1-1). Junior Conner Dotson (3-1) gets the ball on Sunday against freshman lefty Cody Bradford (2-1).
FOLLOWING ALONG
Friday’s game will air nationally on FS1 and online on FOX Sports Go, with Dave Barnett and Pat Combs on the call. Saturday’s game will be broadcast on FOX Sports Southwest Plus and FOX College Sports Central, and Sunday’s finale will air on FCS Central. All three games will also be streamed online.
Fans can listen to the games on the Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG on various affiliates throughout the state, online at WVUsports.com, on the Mountaineer Gameday App and the TuneInRadio App.
Live stats can be found at BaylorBears.com. Links to live streams, radio broadcast and live stats for all three games can be found on the baseball schedule page on WVUsports.com.
Additional behind-the-scenes updates, news and notes from Waco, Texas, can be found on social media by following and connecting with the team at @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
SCOUTING BAYLOR
No. 10 Baylor enters the weekend with a 15-2 record and a league-best .882 winning percentage. The Bears are 10-1 at home, 3-0 on the road and 2-1 at a neutral site. BU owns a 4-2 mark against ranked opponents and is ranked in the top 20 in all six major polls.
The Bears are coming off a 4-1 win at Dallas Baptist on Wednesday night, after a series win at home against Houston.
Richard Cunningham’s .366 batting average leads the team, while Shea Langeliers and Matt Menard share the team lead with 19 hits. On the mound, Drew Robertson owns a perfect 0.00 ERA in eight relief appearances. Nick Lewis, who is one of two Bears with a 3-0 record, has a team-high 24 strikeouts.
The Bears are coached by Steve Rodriguez, in his second season in Waco. He is 39-31 at Baylor and 440-331 in 14 years as a head coach. Rodriquez coached for 12 years at Pepperdine, where he also played and led the team to the 1992 College World Series.
SERIES HISTORY VS. THE BEARS
West Virginia is 6-6 all-time against Baylor, following a home series win last year. WVU is 4-1 at home, 2-4 in Waco, and 0-1 at a neutral site. All 12 games have come since 2013, when the Mountaineers joined the Big 12.
WVU lost the first series, in 2013 in Waco. West Virginia won the opener, 9-8, before back-to-back losses. In 2014, the Mountaineers swept a two-game series in Charleston, West Virginia, 8-7 and 4-1. Baylor followed with a 9-4 win at the 2014 Big 12 Championship. In 2015, WVU lost the first two games in Texas before an 8-2 win.
Last year, West Virginia again won the home series, thanks to a pair of complete games by the pitching staff.
WVU opened the series with a 10-0 win on Friday behind Chad Donato’s two-hit, complete game shutout. The Mountaineers complimented Donato’s gem on the mound with 10 runs on 12 hits, including catcher Ray Guerrini’s fifth home run of the season. Donato held the Bears to just two hits with nine strikeouts and no walks. He threw 87 pitches and faced more than three batters in an inning just three times. BU did not advance a runner past first base all night. Eight Mountaineers had at least one hit and eight scored one or more run.
After a ninth-inning rally fell short in an 8-6 loss in the opening game of a doubleheader the following day, the Mountaineers secured the series win as left-hander Ross Vance threw his first complete game of the season and fourth of his career in a 5-1 victory. The Mountaineers scored two runs early and added three late insurance runs to secure their third Big 12 series win of the year. Vance held Baylor to one unearned run on seven hits with nine strikeouts and just one walk. Jackson Cramer had his fifth multi-hit game in the last six contests and drove in more than one run for the third time in the last four games. In the win, he accounted for four of WVU’s five runs, with two RBIs and two runs scored on two hits with a walk.
Following the series, WVU was rewarded with a historic sweep of the Big 12 Conference weekly awards. Jackson Cramer was named the Big 12 Player of the Week, Chad Donato was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and Ivan Gonzalez was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week.
West Virginia became the first team in league history to win all three awards in one week.
Additionally, Chad Donato was named the National Pitcher of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), becoming the sixth player in program history to earn national weekly honors from the NCBWA.
ON DECK: SEASON-OPENING ROAD SWING ENDS AT PENN STATE
The Mountaineers travel to State College, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, March 22 at 6:30 p.m. ET, to face Penn State. After WVU’s home opener on Tuesday, March 14, was postponed, the game at Penn State marks the last of 19 consecutive road games to begin the season.
LAST TIME OUT: ABBREVIATED WEEKEND IN NORFOLK
Less than 40 hours after playing an extra-inning game at Southeastern Louisiana, WVU began a three-game series at Old Dominion with an afternoon doubleheader on March 10. Weather forced a schedule change to the weekend series, where WVU opened with an 8-4 loss before rebounding with a 3-1 win in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader. ODU won Saturday’s finale, 7-4.
West Virginia lost the opening game of the doubleheader at Old Dominion, 8-4. WVU took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, thanks to Chase Illig’s first career home run. Old Dominion answered with three runs in the sixth before the Mountaineers regained the lead with a run in the seventh. A five run ninth, including a grand slam, won the game for Old Dominion.
Michael Grove threw five no-hit innings to lead West Virginia to a 3-1 victory in Friday’s nightcap. Grove and freshman reliever Kade Strowd combined to no-hit ODU into the seventh inning as the Mountaineers held ODU to one run on two hits. Grove was lights-out on the mound and did not allow a hit in 5.0 innings of work. He struck out 11, two shy of his career high, while walking three and picked up his first win of the season. Beginning in the third inning, the Wheeling, West Virginia, native retired eight of the nine batters he faced, all via the strikeout. Kyle Davis had one of WVU’s eight hits, a home run in the sixth inning, the eventual game-winning run.
On Saturday, WVU trailed 2-0 early before scoring a run in the seventh inning to cut the deficit in half, at 2-1. However, ODU answered with five runs, all unearned, in the eighth, to take a 7-1 lead before the Mountaineers tried to rally in the ninth, scoring three runs. Cole Austin led WVU with two hits and had both of WVU’s RBIs, while Darius Hill had two hits and two runs scored. Conner Dotson allowed two runs on three hits in 5.0 innings, but suffered his first loss of the year.
QUICK HITS: KEY TEAM NOTES
- West Virginia is celebrating its 125th year of baseball. Founded in 1892, WVU owns an all-time record of 2,103-1,509-19. The Mountaineers are the second-oldest program in the Big 12.
- West Virginia will play its first 19 games away from home, after the home opener, on Tuesday, March 14, was postponed due to snow.
- Darius Hill had a career-best and team-leading 13-game hitting streak, which ended on March 8 at Southeastern Louisiana. He had at least one hit in each of WVU’s first 11 games, with four multi-hit games and four multi-RBI contests. Hill is tied for second on the team with 17 hits and third with 11 RBIs.
- WVU’s 6-2 start to the year followed a 5-1 start in 2016, the first time since 2006-07 the Mountaineers have started back-to-back seasons with at least five wins in their first seven games. Just like a six-game winning streak in 2017, WVU’s start to 2016 included a five-game winning streak.
- West Virginia went 2-0 against No. 18 Coastal Carolina on Feb. 25 and 27, its first games against a ranked foe in 2017 and its first-ever games against a defending national champion.
- In West Virginia 22-9 win at No. 18 Coastal Carolina on Feb. 25, WVU’s 22 runs were the most since it scored 23 against Duquesne in 2010. WVU’s 29 hits was three shy of the school record of 32, set in 2009, and the Mountaineers’ six home runs was one shy of the school record of seven, set in 1997. WVU’s 56 at-bats is a new school record. Jackson Cramer had a career-best five hits, four extra-base hits and three doubles, all one shy of tying the school record, and he added a career-high six RBIs.
- Every starter in the lineup has had at least one hit twice in WVU’s first seven games, while every starter recorded an RBI once.
- Sophomore catcher Ivan Gonzalez has been named to the 2017 Johnny Bench Award Watch List. The annual award is given annually to the top Division I collegiate catcher.
- Coach Randy Mazey is 132-108 at West Virginia and became the fifth coach in team history to eclipse the 100-win mark and the second to accomplish the feat in his first four seasons.
- West Virginia was voted to finish fifth in the 2017 Big 12 Conference baseball preseason coaches’ poll, WVU’s highest preseason ranking since joining the conference in 2013.
- WVU’s 2017 schedule includes 15 games against teams that made the 2016 NCAA Tournament, including four of the eight teams that advanced to the College World Series. West Virginia plays two games at Coastal Carolina and hosts TCU, the preseason No. 1 team in the country.
- WVU won 36 games in 2016, the most wins in a single season in coach Randy Mazey’s four years and the most since 2009 (37).
- WVU went 3-1 at the 2016 Big 12 Championship and advanced to its first Big 12 Championship game and first conference title game since 1996.
- Darius Hill and Ivan Gonzalez were named to Freshman All-America teams after leading WVU in several offensive categories as freshmen in 2016
- WVU has had 14 draft selection in coach Randy Mazey’s four seasons, the most draft picks in a four-year stretch in team history.
- Attendance has increased in each of WVU’s first four seasons in the Big 12, highlighted by a program-record total of 40,390 fans in 2016, for an average of 1,346 fans per game. WVU averaged a record 1,507 n the inaugural season at Monongalia County Ballpark in 2015.
Season tickets, single game tickets, flex plan tickets and mini packs for the 2017 WVU baseball season are on sale now. Fans can purchase tickets by calling 1-800-WVU GAME, going to WVUGAME.com or visiting the Mountaineer Ticket Office in the WVU Coliseum. The 2017 schedule is available on WVUsports.com.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow WVU Baseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and visit WVUsports.com.
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