GRANVILLE, W.Va. — Tuesday’s Backyard Brawl marked the 622nd contest Randy Mazey has coached at West Virginia.
Thanks to a combination of the result and atmosphere at Kendrick Family Ballpark, it will undoubtedly go down as one of the more memorable games for Mazey in this is 12th and final season guiding the Mountaineers.
In front of 4,614 — the largest single-game attendance mark in WVU history — the 22nd-ranked Mountaineers scored three times in the third inning and three more in the fourth, while making the most of 3 2/3 scoreless innings from starting pitcher Tyler Switalski to defeat the Panthers for a sixth straight time, 6-3.
“I just told the guys in the huddle, for you guys that are not from around here, which is most of you, this is what the Backyard Brawl is all about,” Mazey said. “The crowd was unbelievable. Is that the largest crowd in the history of West Virginia baseball? That’s ridiculous. They were into the game and that’s a cool atmosphere for our guys to see that have never seen it.”
About the only negative for West Virginia (23-13) came in the third inning when shortstop JJ Wetherholt was removed in favor of Spencer Barnett. Wetherholt had singled in his first and only at bat of the night, and he began the matchup playing shortstop for the first time since February 19 when he suffered a hamstring injury that sidelined him for six weeks. Yet with one out in the third inning and Wetherholt due to bat for a second time, Barnett took his place in the lineup and entered at second base, while Brodie Kresser moved from second to shortstop.
Mazey did not offer an update on Wetherholt’s status afterward, though the leadoff hitter remained in the dugout throughout the game and it appeared he was taken out for precautionary reasons more than anything.
“He came to me in the third inning and said, coach I haven’t eaten since breakfast, I’m hungry,” Mazey said. “So I sent him across the street to Buffalo Wild Wings to get some dinner.”
Oddly enough, it was Barnett’s third-inning single that helped ignite the Mountaineers and break a scoreless tie. Immediately after it, Logan Sauve reached on one of the Panthers’ two errors, with Barnett moving to third on the play. Barnett wound up scoring on a wild pitch and Sam White’s double to right-center brought home Sauve for a 2-0 lead. Reed Chumley’s sacrifice fly scored White later in the third for a 3-0 lead.
Switalski had kept Pitt (14-19) from scoring in each of the first three innings, during which time the Panthers stranded a pair of baserunners in each frame.
“You definitely want to take everything in and it’s a great atmosphere to pitch in, but at the same time, when the umpire says play ball, you have to calm everything down, be ready to go, lock into your catcher and try to hit your spots,” Switalski said.
He walked consecutive batters in the fourth and was removed in favor of Hayden Cooper, who induced a pop up off the bat of Jayden Melendez to end that inning with the three-run lead intact.
It was a strong showing from Switalski, a native of nearby Waynesburg, Pa., who was given the option to start on the mound.
“As a competitor, he knows what’s at stake,” Mazey said. “He’s fighting for innings right now, because other guys are pitching well. I gave him the option if he wanted to start this game or not. He said, ‘Heck yeah, are you kidding me?’ The kid is from right up the road and knows a little bit about this rivalry.”
West Virginia, which won for the eighth time in its last nine games, gained complete control with a three-run third.
Grant Hussey began the inning by drawing a walk, and after moving to second on a balk, Hussey got to third on Kresser’s single. Aaron Jamison followed with a run-scoring single to right for a 4-0 advantage.
“I haven’t been part of a crowd like that. We had a lot of people here tonight,” Jamison said. “That was the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of. It definitely took a few innings to get adjusted and stay within myself, but it was fun.”
Barnett brought home Kresser on a sacrifice bunt for the Mountaineers’ fifth run, and a Sauve single plated Jamison with what proved to be West Virginia’s final run of the night.
Cooper worked around a one-out walk in the fifth to prevent Pitt from scoring, and despite allowing three singles in the sixth, Cooper benefited from a double play and got Melendez to hit a line drive to third for the final out.
The Panthers broke through in the eighth and cut their deficit in half on one swing — a Melendez three-run home run after Jonah St. Antoine and Luke Cantwell had reached on singles.
The team-high 11th home run from Melendez marked the end of Cooper’s outing and after Joseph Fredericks retired the only batter he faced to finish off the top of the eighth, Carson Estridge tossed a scoreless ninth to record his second save.
Switalski scattered six hits and walked three with three strikeouts among the 11 outs he recorded. Cooper, who recorded the win, allowed three runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and a base-on-balls in four innings.
“We needed to get 50 or 60 pitches out of [Switalski] and the same thing out of Cooper, and they were both great,” Mazey said. “Estridge seems like he’s enjoying that role at the back end. Fredericks came in and got a left-hander out. Those guys killed it. Cooper made one mistake and the guy hit a homer, but other than that, those guys were great.”
Kresser led the Mountaineers with two of their seven hits.
Cantwell had a game-high three hits for Pitt, which finished with six more hits than the Mountaineers.
Matthew Fernandez took the loss after allowing three runs in 2 1/3 innings.
“”One thing you can never say about one of our teams is they weren’t ready to play,” Mazey said. “If we would’ve gotten swept this past weekend, we would have been ready to play. We did sweep last weekend and we’re still ready to play today.“