Apr. 3—MORGANTOWN — West Virginia's baseball domination over Pitt continued in a big way Wednesday.
In front of a record Kendrick Family Ballpark crowd of 4, 629 fans, the 25th-ranked Mountaineers 10-runned the rival Panthers 11-1 in eight innings.
BOX SCORE What else is new ? It's the third time over the last five meetings Pitt (16-12) has been mercy-ruled by the Mountaineers (24-4), who have now won eight straight in the series.
Pitt hasn't beaten WVU since 2022, a proud fact Mountaineers head coach Steve Sabins carries with him whenever he goes scouting for talent in Western Pennsylvania.
It's quite possible Sabins and WVU have now cornered the market in that recruiting region.
"The guys from Pittsburgh know what's been built here over the last decade is special, " Sabins said. "No one can confuse that in this region. We have the best fans, the best atmosphere, the best program in this part of the country. I'm not shy to say that.
"The guys from Pittsburgh—if you're a serious player in Pennsylvania—you want to come to school at West Virginia."
Which brings us to the bottom line from Wednesday's blowout: WVU held Pitt to just one run on four hits.
Gavin Kelly, a freshman from the Pittsburgh suburbs, went 3 for 4 with three RBIs.
"Growing up, I wanted to go (to Pitt), " Kelly said. "That wasn't the avenue I was given. I'm happy to be at West Virginia."
And then there were the subplots behind the bottom line, which is to say Sabins, at the very least, has to have some level of concern about the WVU pitching staff.
Giving up one run on four hits sounds great, kind of like the quarterback who throws for 350 yards and four touchdowns.
But then you dig a little deeper and see that same quarterback also threw three interceptions and was sacked four times in the same game.
That is the WVU pitching in a nutshell at the moment.
Kansas is the only other team in the Big 12 that has at least 24 wins on the season and WVU's team ERA of 3.71 is second in the league behind only UCF.
Yet, WVU has also allowed the third-most walks among Big 12 teams and have hit another 45 batters, which is the second-most in the conference.
Against Pitt, four WVU pitchers combined for seven walks and hit three more.
That one run allowed looks terrific, but Pitt also had the bases loaded in three consecutive innings.
It could have easily gone the other way, but WVU ended those three innings with double plays.
"It's a fair question, because you give up a run, so you had a great pitching performance, " Sabins began. "If you watch every pitch of every game, over the last five games, we have not been sharp. It's not a great recipe if your starters are only throwing two or three innings. Long term, that will get you beat."
In taking two of three against BYU last weekend, WVU put up a combined 44 runs. It had to, because the Mountaineers also gave up 36.
"Our offense has done a really nice job of masking some of the things that have happened on the pitching side, " Sabins said.
There was a pitching bright spot for WVU against the Panthers. Freshman Benjamin Hudson picked up his first collegiate win. He went five innings in relief, allowed two hits and one run.
"I'm super grateful for the opportunity, " Hudson said. "It's cool that they can trust us as freshmen."
Logan Sauve drove in two runs—he's got seven RBIs over his last three games—and Armani Guzman also drove in two runs for the Mountaineers, who host Utah for a three-game series beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
The Utes will enter the series in next-to-last place in the Big 12.
