GRANVILLE – Ben McDougal’s season nearly ended before it began. The Bridgeport native had other ideas, and because he had great belief in himself, he became one of West Virginia’s heroes in the NCAA tournament on Sunday night.
McDougal pitched five innings in relief, threw 84 pitches and earned his first victory of the season, as the Mountaineers pulled off an 11-9 come-from-behind victory in front of 4,184 overjoyed fans inside Kendrick Family Ballpark.
“I came back from injury and it’s just kind of been a process,” McDougal begins the story. “I just kept working back and the opportunity presented itself today.”
WVU (42-15) will now play Kentucky (33-22) again in a winner-take-all game at 6 p.m. today for the right to advance to the super regional round.
McDougal’s injury is where WVU head coach Steve Sabins begins the story of his relief pitcher. By the time McDougal returned to action, it was already early April and Sabins discussed with McDougal the option of taking a medical redshirt and coming back for a full senior season in 2027.
“McDougal said, ‘No, I want the ball. I’m ready to do this,’ ” Sabins said.
So Sabins slowly began to work McDougal back, but his opportunities were few, as the Mountaineers began to climb up the national rankings. By the time the postseason rolled around, McDougal had only pitched six innings on the season.
“Ben is one of those kids who is like a son in a sense,” Sabins said. “You just want what’s best for him. That kid would literally do what’s best for me, so I’m going to do what’s best for him. You have that conversation, and I told him the only thing I couldn’t promise him is innings, because those are earned.”
Sabins said his concern is McDougal wouldn’t get to pitch many innings and then McDougal’s college career would be over.
Then came Sunday night. WVU had already played three games in the Morgantown Regional. WVU’s list of pitching options were slimming down. McDougal entered the game with two runners on base and no outs in the fifth inning. Kentucky led, 7-6, and McDougal was about to face the meat of Kentucky’s order.
He struck out Tyler Bell and Luke Lawrence and got Hudson Brown to ground out to end the threat.
In the seventh inning, he gave up consecutive solo home runs to Jayce Tharnish and Bell, as Kentucky ran its lead up to 9-6. Those were the only two McDougal allowed.
“There was a little bit of frustration there,” McDougal said. “Personally, I feel like if I don’t fall deep into those counts, those home runs aren’t hit. I just tried to reset.”
Which is what he did. He pitched a 1-2-3 perfect eighth inning, before allowing a two-out single in the ninth. He forced Tharnish to fly out to center to end the game.
WVU pitching coach Justin Oney, “He looked at me and asked me if I was good,” McDougal said about heading back out to pitch the ninth inning. “I said I’m ready to go. I was in that situation last year and I knew I could do it this year, too.”
No. 1 UCLA goes down
There is more on the line against Kentucky on Monday than just advancing to the next round of the NCAA tournament.
With UCLA’s 6-5 loss in 10 innings against St. Mary’s the winner of the Morgantown Regional will go on to host the super regionals. WVU has played in the super regionals the last two seasons, but always on the road.
“Awesome, we need more motivation to win (Monday),” Sabins joked. “We don’t need more motivation, we probably need less. Let’s just go turn some double plays and throw some strikes. That’s what we’re all into. It’s awesome, but definitely not more motivation. We just want to keep playing together as a team.”
