Former WVU Baseball Standout Makes Immediate Impact At Triple-A Level

For many people, the first day at a new job can be overwhelming and hard to conquer. However, that is not the case for WVU baseball legend JJ Wetherholt.

Just days after his promotion to the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, Wetherholt hit a triple and a home run in his first game for the Memphis Redbirds on Wednesday. Not much could have went better for the former Mountaineers in his Triple-A debut.

Wetherholt got his first hit in Triple-A on a fly ball to the right fielder. Assisted by a 10th man -- the sun -- Wetherholt’s flyball was a usual routine out that turned into a three-base hit in the third inning. The former Mountaineer was able to glide into third with a stand-up triple as he recorded his first Triple-A hit.

Just a few innings later, Wetherholt blasted one to centerfield to record his first home run at the Triple-A level. Two outs in the fifth inning with no runners on, Wetherholt got ahold of a ball and sent it over the centerfield wall to make it an 8-3 game. The middle infielder finished the game going 2-4 with two extra-base hits, an RBI, and a run scored.

Getting his promotion call on Monday, Wetherholt did not waste much time before collecting his first hit at the Triple-A level. Good news has come in a huge wave for the left-handed hitting prospect for the Cardinals. At the end of June, Wetherholt was included in the NL All-Star Futures team roster as a part of the Futures Game during the MLB All-Star Game.

It has been a great past few weeks for Wetherholt. Now, a couple of things are for certain: Wetherholt has shown he'll be a big-time player at the Triple-A level, and fans will be heavily rooting for the infielder to keep dominating the minor leagues like he did at the Double-A level.