Before the WVU baseball team begins Big 12 play, it already has 10 wins.
On Tuesday, before a crowd of 808 at Monongalia County Ballpark, the Mountaineers earned a 6-2 win over Redford.
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Once again, a freshman came through for West Virginia as Tanner Campbell pitched masterfully on the mound.
Campbell allowed just one run and four hits over six innings. On the year, Campbell has a 2.61 earned run average and have eight strikeouts in 10.1 innings pitched. Also, he is limiting opponents to a .211 batting average.
Once Campbell settled down after the first inning, it was smooth sailing against Redford.
"“Things were sped up on Tanner in the first inning, he was rushing a little bit, just being a freshman,” said WVU coach Randy Mazey. “Once he settled in, I thought he was pretty good. He made some really good pitches when he needed too, with men on base and the game still up in the air. It was pretty encouraging.”"
Another underclassmen, Shaun Corso, delivered at the plate. He drove in four runs against Redford, his first RBIs of the season. On the year, Corso has a .326 batting average with two doubles in 43 at bats.
The Mountaineers have wrapped up their first homestand of the season with a 3-1 record. They now move on to face TCU on Friday.
Last season, the Mountaineers did not get to 10 wins until March 22. By that point, the WVU baseball team had a record of 10-10 and were already in conference play. Last season, the Mountaineers suffered early losses to Clemson and Georgia Southern, while suffering through a three-game winning streak.
West Virginia is off to a much better start this season.
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Mazey is relying on a wealth of young talent and, so far, they are delivering. Six players (Jimmy Galusky, KC Huth, Shaun Corso, Kyle Gray, Darius Hill and Kyle Davis) are batting over .300.
They will have to keep the bats hot in Big 12 play. The first hurdle to jump in the tough conference is TCU. The Horned Frogs have a 13-3 record and have tallied five-straight wins earlier in the year.
TCU is averaging 8.8 runs per game this season, while the WVU baseball team is averaging 5.5 per game.