GRANVILLE, W.Va. – The atmosphere at sold-out Monongalia County Ballpark was everything West Virginia’s players and coaches hoped it would be on Friday night.
“That was probably the loudest game I’ve ever played in,” said West Virginia starting pitcher Nick Snyder.
A program-record 4,355 fans squeezed in to a park with a listed capacity of 3,500.
There wasn’t just noise, though. There was energy that fed the Mountaineers.
“We’re exhausted right now just from the energy,” said catcher Ivan Gonzalez. “As soon as we saw everybody pile in, sitting on the berm and screaming from the get-go, you’re just fired up. You’re energy is up for every out and every pitch. But at the end of the game, you’re pretty tired and ready for bed.”
Second baseman Tyler Doanes said the experience of a sold-out Mon County Ballpark is second-to-none.
“It’s the greatest atmosphere in college baseball,” Doanes said.
It was electric enough that coach Randy Mazey is glad he didn’t start ace Alek Manoah against Fordham. Manoah admitted he was a bit too amped-up to have pitch in such a setting without first having a chance to soak it all in.
“When he saw the crowd file in, he said ‘I’m glad I’m not pitching this first game. I needed to see this first,’” Mazey said. “I think if he had gotten the ball today he would have tried to throw it right through the catcher. I think [Saturday] he’ll settle in and do what he does.”
Ball-magnet Baker leaves with injury
Fordham left fielder Jake Baker became an unfortunate ball magnet in the top of the fifth inning.
On one swing, he fouled a ball off the ground near home plate. It bounced straight back at him and grazed his cheek. Baker stepped out of the box for a minute to make sure everything was OK – which it was.
Then on the very next pitch, Snyder hit Baker in the face. This time he was not OK as blood dribbled down his chin. Baker sat on the ground for several minutes as Fordham’s trainer checked on him, then was pulled from the game to an ovation from the Mon County Ballpark crowd.
“I had a good look at the ball that hit him. That’s painful,” said Fordham coach Kevin Leighton. “It’s part of the game, obviously. Hopefully, he’s ready to go tomorrow.”
Leighton said Baker needed to get several stitches as well as a dental check to make sure his teeth were still aligned correctly.
Several Mountaineers gave Baker fist-bumps as he made his way to the clubhouse over the right-field wall.
Mazey said the hit-by-pitch was a factor in removing Snyder for Kade Strowd to being the sixth inning.
“It’s hard to come back from that,” Mazey said. “You feel so awful as a pitcher. I think he got a little out of the strike zone to the next batter and was trending the wrong direction.”
No stolen bases
Fordham entered the regional leading the nation with 177 stolen bases. They were 0-for-2 against West Virginia.
Leighton said there were a few factors that contributed to the Rams running game grinding to a relative halt, including the fact that Snyder is a southpaw.
“Being left-handed, I thought he threw over enough to keep us honest,” Leighton said.
On top of that, the game situations rarely worked out the way Leighton would have liked them to.
“It just didn’t work out where we really had our good matchups, our best base runners on base to steal,” he said. “It makes it harder when they started to expand the lead. I thought Gonzalez made a great throw; the one where we were trying to delay-steal second and steal home. We just didn’t execute that play the way we’re supposed to, but they did a good job keeping us from stealing.”
No Country Roads
Fans might consider bringing pitch-pipes to the ballpark on Saturday.
Because the regional is an NCAA-sanctioned event, host teams aren’t allowed to play their normal in-game music. That also applied to the postgame, when the Mountaineers and their fans were forced to perform an a capella version of Country Roads, which usually plays after every West Virginia win.
In addition, The Mountaineer mascot was not permitted on his normal perch atop the WVU dugout, and could not fire his rifle to celebrate the win.
Scully calls Rams
Vin Scully has made some of the most famous calls in baseball history. On Friday, the retired Dodgers broadcaster made a call to his old team.
Scully, a 1949 Fordham graduate, phoned in to wish the Rams good luck before their first-round game against West Virginia.
Scully actually played two seasons at Fordham, including a game against Yale and future president George H.W. Bush. He went on to call Dodgers games for 66 years, moving west with the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. He retired from the broadcast booth after the 2016 season.
Drought snapped
Heading into the ninth inning of Friday’s first-round game against Duke, Texas A&M had scored one run in its previous 26 innings. Mentally, the Aggies were poised to be in the worst possible scenario for a team heading into the loser’s bracket.
But the Aggies snapped out of their hitting malaise, scoring four runs and bringing the tying run to the plate in their 8-5 loss to Duke. Though they would have obviously preferred a win, the productive ninth provided some hope for A&M moving forward.
“I definitely think it’s a shot of confidence for our offense,” said first baseman Hunter Coleman. “We’ve been struggling a little bit. To kind of just go in and take something from them and give us a little momentum going into tomorrow when our backs are against the wall, I think it’s definitely going to help.”
Closers gotta close
Duke closer Thomas Girard came into regionals with a sterling 1.44 ERA and was a perfect 9-for-9 in save situations.
Which is exactly why it ended up being an issue that he entered the game with an 8-1 lead.
“I guarantee if that’s a close ballgame, he doesn’t do that. He hasn’t done that all year,” said Duke coach Chris Pollard. “Closers are closers for a reason. They smell the finish line. When they’ve got that big game, sometimes it’s easy to pull up and coast across the finish line.”
Pollard said he won’t hesitate to go back to Girard the rest of the tournament.
“If we’re in this spot [Saturday], he’s going right back out there,” Pollard said.
Sophomore lefty Matt Dockman came in to record the final two outs on ground outs to help the Blue Devils advance to today’s winner’s bracket semifinals.
-Justin Jackson contributed to this story.