— By Justin Jackson, Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — There is a good story behind Braden Zarbnisky and his ability to be one of the best two-way college baseball players in the country.
That was very much on display Thursday night at Monongalia County Ballpark, as West Virginia held on for a gutsy 2-1 win against talented Baylor, which had won 16 of its last 18 games.
On display was Zarbnisky hitting a rope down the right-field line for a triple and then scoring on Brandon White’s single to tie it at 1-1 in the third.
WVU (27-23, 9-13 Big 12) won the game in the seventh inning, when Marques Inman reached on a two-base throwing error and scored on Tyler Doanes’ sacrifice fly.
Also on display: Zarbnisky pitching the eighth and ninth innings in near-dominant fashion for his first save to secure a much-needed victory for the Mountaineers.
“Zarb is a special breed,” said Mountaineers starter B.J. Myers. “He’s a two-way player and has to warm up between innings and doesn’t get the full bullpen time. It takes a special guy to be able to do that.”
That is the behind-the-scenes glance at Zarbnisky, a finalist for the John Olerud Award last season, which goes to the nation’s top utility player.
West Virginia coach Randy Mazey, having gone through most of the regular season watching his starting rotation pitch inconsistently, changed his philosophy toward his hurlers.
“We had a meeting (Wednesday) and told everybody how many innings they were going to throw and what order,” Mazey said. “We were 49 games into it and we’ve only had two starting pitchers get us into the seventh inning. Trying to extend guys — it took us 49 games to figure out that wasn’t working. We just said that we’re going to throw our best guys in shorter stints.”
Zarbnisky knew he was going to pitch the eighth after making a catch in left field to end Baylor’s seventh inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, Zarbnisky was scheduled to bat third, so this is how it all went down for the junior from Marietta, Ga.:
“When I made the catch, I knew I was going to bat that inning, so I had to run to the bullpen” located beyond the right field wall, Zarbnisky said.
“I sprinted all the way to the bullpen and changed my shoes. I got on the mound and warmed up some. Then I had to run down to the dugout and get ready to bat. That’s a lot of running.”
Made little difference that Zarbnisky’s at-bat was a flyout to left, but what he did in the eighth and ninth was special.
“That was vintage Zarb,” Mazey said. “That Zarb hasn’t shown up on both sides of the ball yet this year. What a great time for it to happen. That was the best he pitched all year.”
In the ninth, Zarbnisky went with nothing but heat. The Bears (30-19, 11-11), who entered the game second in the Big 12 with a .293 team batting average, could not catch up to Zarbnisky’s heavy dose of fastballs.
“Besides the one dirt ball I threw, everything else was fastballs,” he said. “Fastball command can help win you games. I was just going out there and attacking every hitter and not giving in to what they wanted me to do.”
He struck out the side in the eighth, while giving up a ground-rule double that Darius Hill lost in the lights. In the ninth, he fanned two more, before Nick Loftin flied out to center to end it.
In all, six West Virginia pitchers did not give up a walk and struck out 11.
Myers gave up a run in three innings while Alek Manoah followed up with two scoreless. Zach Reid (1-0) picked up his first win by getting the final out of the seventh.
Needing a sweep of Baylor for an opportunity to finish as high as fifth in the Big 12 standings, West Virginia will host the second of a three-game series at 3 p.m. Friday.