MORGANTOWN — J.J. Wetherholt just may have saved Opening Day for everyone here in Morgantown and in the entire state of West Virginia on Thursday.
If you haven’t heard, the former West Virginia All-American and 2023 Big 12 Player of the Year, homered in his second-ever at-bat as a major leaguer, blasting one 425 feet to deep center in St. Louis’ 9-7 victory over Tampa Bay. Wetherholt added a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning for a second RBI on the day.
Chances are, you already know about Wetherholt’s MLB debut. You couldn’t go to a sandwich shop, gas station or grocery store on Friday without overhearing someone mentioning it.
Professional baseball, it would seem, is back to being alive and well in these parts, thanks to Wetherholt. There hasn’t been this type of juice around town over pro baseball since Morgantown’s own Jedd Gyorko was in his heyday with San Diego and St. Louis a decade ago.
Thank goodness for the rise of WVU baseball over the last half decade – Wetherholt is a major reason for that, too – or else the national pastime would just be a blank six months in these parts until the start of football season.
“I thought he was going to go away with the heater,” Wetherholt said after the game about the dinger. “I thought he was probably going to go up-out, just trying to get me to chase. With that in mind, if I saw the pitch start a little bit lower, I was going to go at it and just try to calm myself down, take a lighter swing. And I was able to do so.”
Drew Rasmussen – an All-Star in 2025 – had Wetherholt down 0-2 in the count and his 95 mph fastball was off the plate. Didn’t matter, as Wetherholt reached out and connected. The exit velocity – for those who care about that stuff – was measured at 101.7 mph.
And, all of a sudden, Opening Day once again had meaning in Morgantown.
It’s a feeling that’s rarely felt by Pittsburgh fans. Even with Cy Young winner Paul Skenes on the mound Thursday, the Pirates were, well, they were the Pirates, falling 11-7 to the N.Y. Mets. The only person in the entire state of West Virginia happy about that outcome had to be my wife, a diehard Mets fan.
Ben Conley, our own news reporter here at The Dominion Post, lives and dies with the Cincinnati Reds. He had about as much to be optimistic about on Opening Day as Pirates fans, as Boston came away with a 3-0 shutout at Great American Ballpark.
But we all have Wetherholt.
The Mars, Pa., native – Wetherholt was actually born in Baltimore, but lived the majority of his life in Pa. – was already an adoptive son back when he was leading the nation in hitting with a .449 average in 2023 at WVU.
If there is a level higher than adoptive son, Wetherholt likely reached it Thursday. He quickly became a fan favorite in baseball-hungry St. Louis, too. Fans begged for Weatherholt to step out of the dugout for a curtain call. After some prodding by teammates, Wetherholt obliged.
“It’s slowing down enough to understand what the situation is calling for,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said after the game. “There’s a pace to the way he plays that he competes as if he’s already been here a while. I love that about him, I really do.”
About the only bad thing that came from the buzz created by Wetherholt was how it overshadowed the effort from teammate Victor Scott, another WVU alum who plays centerfield in St. Louis. Scott was 3 for 4 in the game and stole two bases.
For at least one day, Scott can claim he leads the majors in stolen bases and is tied for fourth overall in batting average. How cool is that?
It’s cool enough that on one of the holiest days of the year that baseball can provide, we were all cheering in West Virginia. Pirates fans, Reds fans and even my diehard Mets fan of a wife, we all had something to cheer for, something to brag about.
