WVU Mountaineers drop home opener against the CMU Chippewas with inconsistent pitching and sloppy defense
MORGANTOWN, W.Va (BVM) — On a beautiful day in mid-March in Morgantown the No. 23 ranked West Virginia Mountaineers (4-4) lost their home opener of the 2021 season to the Central Michigan Chippewas (4-4) by a score of 5-3. Despite not having 10 players due to COVID protocols as well as their head coach Randy Mazey because of personal matters, the story of the day for the Mountaineers was shaky pitching to go along with a bevy of defensive mistakes that might have cost them the game.
Friday’s game was a battle of aces for the respective sides as West Virginia lefty Jackson Wolf squared off against Chippewa junior right-hander Jordan Patty. In a day that was defined by the pitching performances of both teams early on, both Wolf and Patty had their stuff working for them. Both starters retired the first six men to face them through the first two innings with Wolf striking out three and Patty one upping him with four Ks in the opening two frames.
In the third inning, the pair of starters both met their first signs of trouble with the West Virginia lefty breaking first. After Wolf gave up a one out single to Zach Heeke, he proceeded to walk the next two Central Michigan batters to load the bases. However, Wolf escaped the jam and kept the Chippewas scoreless by getting outfielder Jakob Marsee to ground into an inning ending 6-4-3 double play.
Much like Wolf, Patty also had issues in the third inning. Catcher McGwire Holbrook drew a leadoff walk but was forced out at second base on a Ben Abernathy fielder’s choice. With William Bean at the plate and Abernathy on first with one out the freshman took off for second and appeared to have stolen the base to set up a scoring chance for West Virginia. However, the home plate umpire ruled that Bean interfered with the Central Michigan catcher and was called out forcing Abernathy back to first. With two outs leadoff hitter Austin Davis singled through the left side setting up a two on, two out situation for first baseman Matt McCormick. On the first pitch from Patty the lefty slugger ripped a ball down the right field line easily scoring Abernathy from the second and the speedy Davis from first to give the Mountaineers an early 2-0 lead.
Cushioned with a two run lead Wolf again struggled with command in the top of fourth. A hit batsman sandwiched between two walks loaded the bases again for Central Michigan without recording a hit. Third baseman Zach Lechnir came up and hit a deep fly ball to right field forcing Abernathy to make an acrobatic catch as a run came in on the sacrifice fly to cut the West Virginia lead in half. With one out and runners at the corners designated hitter Kade Preston split the gap in right center field for a two run triple to give the Chippewas a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth.
The score remained 3-2 until the top half of the sixth. After Wolf walked the leadoff man again he was taken out and reliever Noah Short was the first man out of the bullpen for the Mountaineers. The redshirt sophomore’s first pitch hit Danny Wuestenfeld which was followed by an error by third baseman Kevin Brophy and in the blink of an eye Central Michigan had something going with the bases full for the third time in the game and nobody out. After Short got Preston and Heeke on back-to-back strikeouts, he was one out away from getting out of the jam. But a four pitch walk to pinch hitter Drew Lechnir forced in the inherited runner ending Wolf’s day and scoring the fourth Chippewa run of the afternoon. The senior lefty ended with a pitching line of 5.0 IP, two hits, four runs (three earned runs), five walks, five strikeouts and a hit by pitch while suffering his first loss of the season.
Coming into the season, Wolf was seen by many as the team’s most consistent and reliable starter. Friday’s performance was the worst of his three starts thus far but a start assistant coach Steve Sabins did not seem too worried about.
“He’s been really good and he’s been our rock. His last outing before this one he was excellent,” Sabins said. “He obviously missed a start and it’s a little bit hard. It’s like you’re starting a season over again so just iron some things out there and he’ll be right back to the Wolf man that we know. His slider wasn’t quite as sharp, his fastball velocity was really good but his command wasn’t quite as good. It’s about getting back out there.”
The lone bright spot for the Mountaineers pitching staff was reliever Ben Hampton who came on to pitch the top of the seventh after Short struggled in the inning prior. The freshman lefty retired Central Michigan in order recording two strikeouts. Sabins was complementary of Hampton’s performance as the neophyte looks to carve out a role for himself in the West Virginia bullpen.
“He’s such a stud and such a quality kid,” the West Virginia assistant commented. “He was actually coming back from an injury and so today we wanted to give him one inning of work and maybe prepare him for a mid week start. If that wasn’t the case he probably would’ve kept rolling because he’s been fantastic.”
The score remained 4-2 through the seventh inning as West Virginia struggled to muster any offense against Central Michigan’s Patty. The 6-foot-1 junior befuddled the Mountaineer bats through seven terrific innings, giving up just two runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and only two walks in a winning effort.
Madison Jeffrey came in to pitch the top of eighth for West Virginia as the poor command and lackluster defense appeared again. After Wuestenfeld reached on an error to lead off the frame Jeffrey issued back-to-back walks to Zach Lechnir and pinch hitter Garrett Navarra on eight straight balls to load the bases for the fourth time in the game for Central Michigan. Zach Heeke then hit a chopper to first base that McCormick could not handle bringing in the fifth run of the day for the Chippewas. Jeffrey avoided any further trouble with help from an outstanding play from McCormick as he made up for his previous blunder by awkwardly running into the padding to the right of home plate to catch a foul pop up.
Ian Leatherman relieved Patty in the home half of the eighth to try and hold off a potential Mountaineer comeback. After a 1-2-3 eighth inning for the sophomore that included two strikeouts, Leatherman came back out for the bottom of the ninth to close it out for Central Michigan. Despite giving up a leadoff, wind-assisted home run to McCormick, who drove in all three West Virginia runs, Leatherman retired the next three batters in a row getting freshman infielder Mikey Kluska to strikeout to end the game.
It was a struggle on both sides of the ball for the Mountaineers as they managed just five hits on offense and the quintet of Jackson Wolf, Noah Short, Ben Hampton, Jeffrey Madison, and Carter Lyles issued eight walks as well as two hit batsmen while striking out 13.
