The West Virginia Mountaineers moved to 13-4 on the season this past weekend as they opened Big 12 ply with a road series against the Baylor Bears, capturing the series with victories in their last two games that quelled some fears about the team's talent on the mound while garnering some national attention.
After a mid-game collapse to open the series which saw Dawson Montesa and Reese Bassinger give up multiple runs and Baylor win 7-6, the Mountaineers rebounded with 13-2 and 8-0 wins to close the series, with strong performances all-around on the mound for the Mountaineers.
Pitching gets the job done for West Virginia
It started with Chansen Cole in the second game of the series, who started and played six of seven innings, allowing just three hits and two runs with tossing five strikeouts. Bryant Yoak stepped up big in relief, closing the final inning of play with a pair of strikeouts and no hits allowed.
On Sunday, Max Yehl was impeccable, as he has been most of the season since returning from injury. He pitched inning and allowed just three hits and no runs, while tallying a stunning 12 strikeouts on the afternoon. Freshman phenom David Perez put together yet another big relief effort in the final inning, recording three strikeouts in quick succession to put the nail in Baylor's coffin.
The pitching effort is a relief for fans after Preseason All-American Chase Meyer was dismissed from the team and bullpen stalwart JJ Glasscock went down with an injury, and shows the Mountaineers might just be okay on the mound – especially if Glasscock gets back into the swing of things.
A jump up the Top 25 polls for the West Virginia Mountaineers
After falling out of the D1Baseball Top 25 poll last week, the Mountaineers leapt back into the poll, climbing all the way to the No. 20 spot.
Meanwhile, the Mountaineers jumped up several spots in the Baseball America poll, landing at No. 18 the latest update on Monday. Last week, they were position at just No. 22 in the poll.
The rankings make it clear that despite a bit rougher of a start than last year, when the Mountaineers went most of non-conference play undefeated before advancing to a second consecutive Super Regional, the program is continuing to garner attention and respect at the national level.