Hot bats shine over weekend to help West Virginia baseball claim first Big 12 series

It's hard to beat a baseball team that's truly locked in at the plate -- and this past weekend, 'locked in' would be an understatement to describe West Virginia baseball's hitting.

The Mountaineers were victorious in the last two games of their road series against conference foe BYU to secure their first full Big 12 series win of the season, combining for a jaw-dropping 39 runs over the two wins. The Mountaineers have now won two consecutive Big 12 games after losing two in a row against Arizona during the previous weekend.

After getting manhandled by BYU on Thursday by a final score of 14-5, WVU rallied with a season-high 20 runs on 18 hits Friday to run away with a 20-6 victory and force a rubber match.

18 hits were scattered throughout the lineup on Friday. 11 different Mountaineer hitters recorded a hit. Brodie Kresser, Grant Hussey, Gavin Kelly, Chase Swain, Armani Guzman, and Spencer Barnett all recorded two or more hits in the game.

The rubber match, however, did not have a true rubber match vibe. Some baseball fans checking in on the score of the Big 12 matchup might have thought they clicked on a football score when they saw that the Mountaineers upended BYU in a 19-16 win. It was not a football score, however, just a baseball score inflated by poor outings from both bullpens.

Things looked bleak for the Mountaineers early on Saturday, as BYU was up 15-7 after four complete innings -- and many WVU fans probably thought the game was over. But the Mountaineer offense is seldom out of the game, and that was definitely the case on Saturday as they scored 12 unanswered runs to get the 19-16 win. WVU moved to 22-4 (4-3 in the Big 12) with the series win, while BYU slipped to a record 14-11.

Effective pitching was hard to find in the series finale shootout on Saturday. Eight Mountaineers made it into the box score with a hit, and out of those eight hitters, seven of them registered a multi-hit game. Former Division 2 transfer from the University of Charleston and native West Virginian Kyle West had an amazing game at the plate -- West finished 4-5 (two doubles) with three RBIs and three runs scored.  

One of the most valuable players for the Mountaineers was, surprisingly, pitcher Mac Stiffler. It was surprising because, given the score of 19-16, you would not think that any pitcher would be getting praise for their performance.

Except, Stiffler did something that almost no other pitcher (excluding Jack Kartsonas and Chase Meyer) on Saturday could do: throw two straight scoreless innings. Stiffler came into the ballgame in the fifth inning, one inning removed from BYU’s explosive 10-run inning, and shut the door on the Cougars in his two innings of work. Stiffler was rewarded for his efforts by being named the winning pitcher.

Getting their first Big 12 series win, WVU will go into next weekend’s home series against Utah with a little more confidence and pep in their step. Before taking on Utah, though, WVU will play two midweek games against Ohio State (8-16) and Pitt (16-10) on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.