MORGANTOWN — West Virginia baseball shortstop Matt Ineich had a quiet series against Columbia heading into Game 3. The Ohio transfer was off to one of the hottest starts this season, but went 0-for-6 in the second game. Ineich quickly turned his series around in the finale.
Ineich had six RBIs to fire up WVU’s offense for an explosive 16-to-1 win over Columbia on Sunday, March 8, winning the back-and-forth series with an exclamation point. The Mountaineers have won all four series to start the season. WVU is now 10-3 on the year, and Columba fell to 2-7 on the year.
“Good series win,” head coach Steve Sabins said. “Any time you can win a series, the team is doing well… I think the guys probably played their best baseball all weekend today.”
Ineich’s day started in a big way. The Mountaineers won with a big grand slam from Brodie Kresser in extra innings in Game 2. Ineich joined the party. It wasn’t a walk-off grand slam, but it definitely helped in to win the rubber match.
Ineich crushed a 363-foot grand slam to put WVU up 6-0 in the bottom of the second. This was the Ohio transfer’s first homer for the gold and blue.
“Really good ballpark here, wind blowing out to left,” Ineich said. “Definitely rewards misses, almost, for left-handed hitters. To see a fastball like that. To stay through it to the backside, let the win do the rest.”
Ineich continued to have a great day at the plate. The next inning, Ineich singled, picking up two more RBIs. WVU was then up 8-1. Ineich the teams in RBIs and went 2-for-4 from the plate, boosting his batting average. He scored in the bottom of the seventh after walking to get on, 11-1.
Ineich wasn’t the only Mountaineer with multiple hits. Gavin Kelly, Brodie Kresser and Sean Smith picked up where they left off in Game 2. In the second game, Kelly was a home run shy of the cycle, Kresser had the grand slam and Smith had three hits. Smith hit a one-out single in the second inning to get the scoring started early for WVU in the series finale, 1-0. Smith and Kelly both had two hits. Kresser added to his big weekend and had two RBIs in the bottom of the eighth. He had two hits and brought in three total.
Maxx Yehl received the start for the Mountaineers and had another dominant performance. He went six innings and allowed only one run in the top of the third. WVU was still up 6-1. Yehl went out for the top of the sixth, and he worked his way into trouble. Yehl had two on with two outs. He stayed calm and picked up the strikeout.
Yehl pitched six innings, had a season-high nine strikeouts, walked four and had five hits. He faced 26 batters.
“I think it was just the confidence with everything,” Yehl said. “Every time I looked down and saw the pitch called, I was convicted on everything that I threw. Just felt good. Kept running positive thoughts through my head and knew that I was going to win.”
Joshua Surigao came in relief. He pitched an inning and faced three batters.
With a 10-plus run lead, Sabins brought in the young arm of freshman Weston Smith for his debut in the eighth. The West Virginia-native was the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year and the No. 2 overall player, according to Perfect Game. Smith pitched an inning and didn’t allow a run. Redshirt freshman J.D. Costanzo closed out the game.
Sabins also had Dominican Republic native, freshman Zahir Barjam, come in for an at-bat. He hit a fly ball in no man’s land in shallow right for a single. Redshirt freshman Ryan Maggy, freshmen Weston Mazey, Matthew Robaugh and Colton Sims also appeared at the plate. Mazey walked, and Barjam scored on the wild pitch, making it 13-1. Sims hit a sacrifice fly to add another, 14-1. Robaugh also had a single.
WVU has a quick turnaround for its next home game. The Mountaineers host Maryland on Tuesday, March 10, for just a single game, with first pitch set for 2 p.m., streaming on ESPN+. The Terrapins are the first power conference team WVU has faced this year and are 10-5 this season.
But, this weekend should provide some momentum that was much-needed after falling in the first game and having a chaotic week with cancellations and losing one of their top pitchers, Chase Meyer.
“We are getting better every single day,” Ineich said. “Being able to see that in each guy is impressive. That produces the wins for us.”
