WVU’s baseball season concludes with NCAA tourney loss to Kentucky

The Wildcats (38-18) moved on in the regional, and they will face Indiana (43-18) Sunday evening at 6 p.m. and then potentially again on Monday in an if-necessary game. UK needs to beat the Hoosiers, who topped the ‘Cats 5-3 on Saturday, twice over the next two days if it wants to advance on to the Super Regional round.

West Virginia was 1-2 this weekend in the Lexington Regional, losing to Indiana, 12-6, on Friday and defeating Ball State, 13-5, on Saturday before its year came to an end with the 10-0 loss to UK.

Kentucky jumped out to a strong start Sunday against WVU, as the Wildcats scored runs in four of the first five innings to forge a 6-0 lead.

The Mountaineers found their way onto the base paths during that time, getting runners on during four of the initial five innings, but they couldn’t get any of those around to the plate.

That would be the theme of the day for West Virginia, which was shut out for the first time all season and for just the second time since 2019.

“That’s baseball,” said WVU senior shortstop Tevin Tucker, who was one of three on the day but like his teammates, had strong contact on balls that often went directly to Wildcats. “We were putting some good swings on balls, and it was going right at people.

"But today (UK starter Austin Strickland, who earned the win while giving up just four hits and one walk over six innings) made good pitches, enough to get him out of there. But that’s baseball. It happens. Today he was just a better man.”

WVU coach Randy Mazey used his bullpen early and often in an attempt to keep the ‘Cats in range. In all, seven Mountaineer pitchers took the mound.

West Virginia’s starter Grant Siegel was pulled after just one and a third innings, giving up three hits and three runs during that time. Siegel gave way to Maxx Yehl midway through the second, and Yehl went an inning and a third himself. Though he didn’t allow a run during his time, Mazey replaced Yehl in the middle of an at-bat, bringing in Carlson Reed, who is normally WVU’s closer. Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, Reed was touched for a two-run home run in the fourth and gave up a single run in the fifth before Mazey made another mid-inning change, turning the ball over to Robby Porco. The lanky freshman got out of a bases-load jam in that frame without any further damage, but still the ‘Cats held a six-run advantage after six.

West Virginia used three more relievers in the final two frames – Keegan Allen, Gavin Van Kempen and Kevin Dowdell – who permitted four additional UK runs, three of which came the Wildcats’ final at-bats in the top of the eighth.

In its remaining chances, the Mountaineer offense wasn’t able to muster any genuine scoring threats, and Kentucky’s 10-0 victory ended WVU’s 2023 baseball season.

Despite the 10-run spread, Saturday’s two combatants didn’t have much difference in hit totals – nine for UK and seven for West Virginia. The ‘Cats simply did much more with their opportunities, going seven for 20 with runners on base and four for 14 with runners in scoring position. Meanwhile, the Mountaineers were one of 13 when they had runners on bases and were 0 for 4 when they were in scoring position.

WVU’s JJ Wetherholt was three of four at the plate. The All-American second baseman was the only Mountaineer with more than one hit or an extra base hit (a double) on the day.

Wetherholt wrapped up his sophomore campaign with a school single-season record 104 hits to go along with 25 doubles, 16 home runs and 37 stolen bases, finishing in the top five in each of those three categories for a single season in WVU history. His .454 batting average is the best by a Mountaineer since 1935, and this year it currently leads the NCAA’s Division I. He will almost certainly finish No. 1 in the nation in batting average in 2023, as the only FAU’s Nolan Schanuel (.447) is within 0.25 points of Wetherholt, and Schnauel’s season, now like JJ’s, is complete.

“As I just told the guys, there’s only one team out there out of 64 (in the NCAA Tournament) that’s going to not feel the way we do right now,” said Mazey in the postgame press conference. “Everybody loses their last game except for the last team standing.

“So this is the worst day of the season for a lot of people, a lot of the time. And guys are hugging each other and crying and emotional. And I just told them in the huddle that once the emotion dies down of what happened today, then you’ll realize what happened this season.

“This was probably the greatest season in the history of West Virginia baseball. We ranked top 10 in the nation for the first time in I don’t know how long, 50-some years.

“We tied the single-season win mark at 40,” Mazey continued. “We won the Big 12, and we have a Big 12 championship trophy back at home that we’re going to display forever. And we packed our stadium the second half of the season. We brought the community together like it’s never been done before in our program.

“So once the emotion of today dies down, I think these guys will realize, and a lot of people will realize, that this was one of the best seasons any team has ever put together.

“And I told the guys, if anybody comes up to you in the next week or so and says, ‘Hey, man, what happened this year?’ Tell them exactly that. We were ranked in the top 10. We won the Big 12. Won 40 games and brought a community together. That’s what happened this year,” concluded WVU’s coach.