WVU junior pitcher Aidan Major lives up to his last name.
There’s few better ways to describe the young man’s impact for the Mountaineer baseball squad this season than major, and he provided yet another significant performance on Friday night as WVU breezed past Ohio State 5-2, opening a three-game series with the Buckeyes at Kendrick Family Ballpark on a high note.
Major tossed nine strikeouts in six innings of action on Friday to match his career-high in that category, keeping the Mountaineers competitive through the opening stretch of the night.
“He wasn't as sharp tonight but he gave us a chance to win,’ WVU Head Coach Randy Mazey said. “They got some hits off of him a lot of other guys haven't been hitting, so he'll learn from that -- they'll keep getting better. But yeah, I thought he was really good.”
Mazey pulled Major from the game Friday evening following the sixth inning of play on Friday in order to keep his weekend starter fresh and throw a different look at Ohio State. The relief team was able to keep the Buckeyes from adding to the scoreboard, but Major was a bit disappointed he didn’t get to finish what he began.
“One of the things about ‘Maj’ is he's going to compete no matter what,” Mazey said. “He was so mad when I took him out of the game. He was probably mad I didn't put him at shortstop, but it's just the way ‘Maj’ is and that's what makes him really good. He's such a competitor. He never wants to come out. He could throw 200 pitches in a game and want to finish the game.”
Major’s competitive streak is paying off this spring, as he has earned the starting nod at least once in all five of WVU’s weekend series so far. Following Friday’s performance, he has earned three wins and sits with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 38-9 on the year. While Major was initially poised to come out of the bullpen this season, plans changed and he earned the starting nod to open the season against Stetson. And now that he has his spot, he doesn’t plan on giving it up anytime soon.
“I said you just did the worst thing you could if you wanted me in the bullpen because now, you’re not getting the ball back on Friday nights,” Major said following the Stetson game.