Red Raider Baseball Preview - West Virginia

Last weekend Tech and West Virginia were tied for 2nd in the Big 12 standings, both teams just 2 games back of leader TCU. Both teams had home series, and while Tech was able to take 2 of 3 from TCU, West Virginia dropped 2 of 3 to Oklahoma, much to Red Raider fans enjoyment. Now West Virginia is in need of some wins to get the Big 12 title.

What’s At Stake

If Tech is able to win the series, they’ll distance themselves from the Mountaineers, who only have a road series in Austin. Depending on what the Frogs do against the Horns this weekend in Ft Worth, they could even be in the drivers seat for the Big 12 regular season title. If West Virginia is able to win the series, they will be at least tied with Tech in the standings, and own the tiebreaker. The Mountaineers are looking to boost their ranking nationally to obtain a higher seed in the national tournament.

2017 Mountaineers Baseball

West Virginia has been a pleasantly surprising team this year, boosting the conference. They beat Coastal Carolina twice early in the season and started conference play with a series win in Waco over a top 10 ranked Baylor team. They would go on to win series against OSU, Kansas, and even TCU, before losing in Manhattan to Kansas State. Then last weekend OU came into town and took the series. The Mountaineers are badly in need of a series win, having lost 2 straight that has allowed Tech to pass them in the standings.

As a team, West Virginia is batting .288, good for 2nd in the conference behind Tech. Freshman Brandon White is 9th in the Big 12 with a .331 average. He has 39 hits on the year, but only 6 extra base hits and no home runs. On the mound Michael Grove leads full-time starters with a 2.87 ERA, and is 3rd in the Big 12 in opponents batting average, allowing only a .174. Only Gingery and Janczak from TCU are better in that regard.

Game 1 - Friday 5:30pm WV Stream

Steven Gingery (8-0, 1.55 ERA) vs BJ Meyers (3-2, 3.66 ERA)

Game 2 - Saturday 2:00pm TV: Fox College Sports Central

Erikson Lanning (2-1, 3.52 ERA) vs Kade Strowd (1-1, 4.80 ERA)

Game 3 - Sunday 12:00pm WV Stream

Ryan Shetter (3-0, 3.46 ERA) vs Alex Manoah (0-1, 3.00 ERA)

With Davis Martin still recovering, Gingery has moved to the Friday night spot this weekend and Lanning will start on Saturday. A potentially big impact on the series this weekend will be the weather. It will be in the mid 60’s tonight at first pitch, but will be raining from now until Saturday night around 9 or 10. Also, the temperature is expected to drop into the 40’s during the day on Saturday. The rain will pick back up early Sunday morning and may not let up until the early afternoon. Hopefully they will still be able to get 3 games in, but they may only play 2.