GRANVILLE — If Aidan Major ever gets the opportunity to pitch against Pitt again, he may get promoted to Colonel first.
The true freshman from Mill Hall, Pa. — about a three-hour drive from the Panthers’ campus — pitched six no-hit innings to lead West Virginia to a 9-1 victory Tuesday at Mon County Ballpark.
The victory gave WVU (29-18) the season-series win against Pitt (26-20), which still hasn’t won at Mon County Ballpark since 2016.
WVU also beat Pitt last month at PNC Park, a 3-2 extra-inning affair that Major also started.
Major lasted just three innings in that game, but didn’t allow a hit, but his four walks allowed were his undoing.
His only undoing Tuesday was WVU head coach Randy Mazey deciding not to let him return to the mound in the seventh inning.
“I’ve got a lot of tough decisions to make during a game, but that wasn’t one of them,” Mazey said. “I was going to get him out after the fifth, but he was throwing well. I didn’t want (Pitt) to get four at-bats (against Major). I wanted them to get it off someone else.”
Major struck out eight and walked just two — both coming in the sixth inning — in picking up his second win of the season.
In his two combined starts against the Panthers, he has thrown nine no-hit innings, but he joked he wasn’t about to combine them into one unofficial no-hitter.
“I just had a lot of confidence,” he said. “It was a fun night, that’s for sure. I guess, you could say that, but it’s two separate nights. I wouldn’t say a combined no-hitter, but it definitely feels good.”
Major said he understood the reason for being lifted. He’d thrown a season-high 84 pitches when his previous high was just 60.
“There really wasn’t much to argue,” he said with a smile. “If he’s going to pull you, you’re getting pulled. I definitely wanted to stay in the game, but obviously he knows what’s going on in the game better than I do. At the end of the day, his decision overrules mine.”
Major, who grew up as a Penn State fan, said he was heavily recruited by Pitt coming out of Central Mountain High School.
“I started learning more about the rivalry once I got here,” he said. “They were one of the first teams to contact me, but I committed here pretty early. From the time I was 15, Pitt was probably in my top two schools.
“I was thinking about before the game. When I came out, I said, ‘Heck yeah, I just did that.’”
The Mountaineers supported Major offensively with two three-run home runs from Victor Scott II and Braden Barry. McGwire Holbrook also drove in two runs with a single in the first inning that gave WVU a 3-0 lead it would not relinquish.
Austin Davis and J.J. Wetherholt each added two hits.
WVU now hits the road for a three-game series at Oklahoma that begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday, which will be a match-up of the fourth-and fifth-place teams in the Big 12 standings.
The Sooners are one game ahead of WVU in conference play and are coming off a series win last weekend against TCU.
TWEET @bigjax3211
