WVU Baseball: The Mountaineers Pitching Ace
The WVU baseball team plays Maryland in the WInston-Salem Regional today at 2 p.m. Could BJ Myers be on the mound?
Coming in as a Junior, B.J. Myers led the pitching staff by a wide margin with eighty seven innings pitched. He ended up with a 4.03 era, but considering the number of innings he pitched his value is incalculable. While winning four pitching contests for the ‘Eers, Myers struck out 70 batters.
Myers posted a number that most people don’t pay attention to: base on balls. He only allowed 16 walks. To put that in to perspective, Jackson Sigman pitched a little over half of what Myers did and allowed twenty walks. Myers does not play around with batters; he gets the job done and strikes them out.
Most pitchers aren’t seen as “batting threats” just because most of their time is spent pitching and working on their craft, but for B.J he can also swing the bat decently, posting .262 batting average. This may not come across as a big deal, or jump out at you but this means as a coach you can use him as a batter without having to bring someone in for him and have a pinch hitter for maybe someone who is having an off game which can make a huge difference in a close game.
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Myers best game came in the series against Kansas as he posted his first complete game as a Mountaineer. Heading into the game, WVU was on a five-game winning streak while also winning ten of thirteen. This may not sound big, but this is a lot of pressure and as a pitcher it’s even more pressure.
With that being said, Myers posted his best start ever as a Mountaineer. West Virginia ended up winning the game 10-1, as Myers allowed a pop fly in the 9th inning. He struck out 10 batters and only allowed five hits.
Myers has always been a good pitcher for the Mountaineers, though.
As a sophomore, he posted second on the team with 66.2 innings pitched and tied for third with five wins while allowing 30 earned runs on 55 hits with 53 strikeouts and 22 walks. He also earned Big 12 pitcher of the week, allowing zero runs on just 5 hits. As a freshman he was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America First Team which is selected by Collegiate Baseball, while also posting sixty strikeouts which is incredible for a first year starter.