MORGANTOWN — The numbers that were interesting for the No. 24 WVU baseball team Tuesday night were 40 and 14.
Well, the most important numbers were on the Kendrick Family Ballpark scoreboard that read WVU mercy-ruled James Madison 11-1 in eight innings.
The win was WVU’s 150th all-time inside its home park, which opened in 2015.
Diving further into the results brought up the story behind Grant Hussey’s 40 and Sam White’s 14.
Hussey’s story is very much a straight-forward blast, which is what the WVU first baseman accomplished with his three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning.
It was an awesome 409-foot shot to the opposite side for the left-handed Hussey, one that highlighted an eight-run first inning for the Mountaineers (17-1).
It was also his 40th career home run, as the former Parkersburg South standout became the first-ever WVU baseball player to reach that many dingers.
“Not really,” Hussey replied when asked if there was any significance to the number. “It’s just another home run.
As Hussey broke the school record last season for most career home runs, he did so while trying not to make a big deal out of it, even going as far as saying he hoped it would be broken by someone else.
To be sure, WVU head coach Steve Sabins believed there was great significance to the number.
“A ton of significance. I don’t know if I’ve ever been around somebody in my career that had 40 home runs,” Sabins said. “I remember at PNC (in Pittsburgh) last year when we were playing Pitt, he had the tying homer and then the go-ahead homer to beat (Jedd) Gyorko’s record, that was something I’ll never forget.
“Every time he hits one, you’re kind of like, ‘That’s the all-time career guy doing what he does, hitting homers.’ It’s a majestical thing I don’t take for granted. When Hussey is no longer here, he will be missed, because it’s a fun thing to watch.”
White’s 14 refers to his current hitting streak, which took a research trip through the NCAA Baseball Statistics Manual to confirm.
The short of it: White had a 12-game streak going into last week’s game against Towson, in which he was walked three times, but did not get a hit.
End of the streak, right? Not according to the official scoring rules that state walks and sacrifice bunts are not a cause for a hitting streak to end.
White then went to Oklahoma State and had two hits and he had two more hits against James Madison (7-13), officially extending his streak to 14 games.
“It’s not something I really think about,” White said of his streak. “It just happens the way it happens.”
In his own opinion, White said he felt like he wasn’t on a 14-game streak.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I didn’t get a hit that game. I didn’t get any official at-bats, either. It’s weird. I guess it’s not a hit streak.”
Sabins, who said he didn’t know what the official rule was when it came to hit streaks, was all in favor of it.
“That makes perfect sense, because it’s out of your control,” Sabins said. “You could have someone not throw a ball over the plate all day, so you live for another day on the streak. So, it makes a little bit of sense.”
During the streak — the WVU record is 38 games, set by Justin Jenkins in 2007 — White is batting .481 with 21 runs scored and 18 RBIs.
“Sam has been incredible,” Sabins said. “You almost have to be monk-like to be as consistent as him, because there are so many emotions that go into a game.
“Scoreboards change. Weather changes. You’re doing great, you’re doing poorly. He really lives pitch by pitch. He doesn’t let the last at-bat affect the next one.”
West Virginia ended the game in the eighth when Jorge Valdes singled home Armani Guzman to end the game.
Freshman Mac Stifler picked up his first collegiate win. He started and went three innings, giving up one hit and one run. He did walk four.
Five James Madison pitchers combined for 11 walks and WVU finished with nine hits, but the Mountaineers were just 4 of 15 (.267) with runners in scoring position.
