GRANVILLE — A year ago at this time, J.J. Wetherholt was getting ready for his senior prom.
A year later, there may be bigger things in store for the Mars, Pa. native, like where he fits among the top freshmen in the Big 12.
Wetherholt went 3 for 4 Thursday night and drove in three runs, including a two-run homer in the first inning, to lead West Virginia past Kansas State 15-4 at Mon County Ballpark.
“Before I came in, I definitely wanted to get some playing time, but I wasn’t really expecting to get as much as I have,” he said.
Wetherholt blasted through those expectations while hitting .400 over his first 10 college games. He’s now 51 games in and is still hitting a healthy .306, while helping the Mountaineers outlast low expectations themselves and push for a spot in the NCAA tournament.
“He was hot early, then kind of cool in the middle, but he’s swinging it good again,” WVU head coach Randy Mazey said. “It’s just in the nick of time, because this is the most important part of the season. He’s swinging it pretty good. You worry about those freshmen, because they’ve never played a 50 or 60-game schedule and they’re going to get tired. It’s encouraging to see the young guys are starting to play well.”
WVU tied a season-high with 15 runs in a Big 12 game and it’s 16 hits was the fifth time with 15 or more hits this season.
With the victory, the Mountaineers (31-20, 12-10 Big 12) are one win shy of tying the school record for Big 12 wins in a season. WVU also won 13 conference games in 2019 and 2013.
It also secured at least the No. 6 seed in next week’s Big 12 tournament for WVU, which was picked to finish eighth in the league, according to the coaches’ preseason poll.
A sweep of the Wildcats (27-25, 8-14) — Game 2 of the series is 6:30 p.m. Friday — could see the Mountaineers move further up in the standings, depending on the outcomes of the Texas Tech-Oklahoma, Oklahoma State-Baylor and Texas-Kansas series.
All of that is discussion for the future. Wetherholt’s present is a story of how he’s adjusted to not only college pitching, but defenses shifting against him.
The Wildcats loaded up the right side of the field with defenders, challenging him to go the other way, which is exactly what the kid did, including on his home run that landed in the left field bullpen.
“If you saw, the shift they had on me today was kind of interesting,” Wetherholt said. “No ground ball was getting through (to the right side), so I was really trying to stay back. Sometimes I’ve been really good doing that, but then sometimes a pitcher will be really good at busting me on the inside. This guy was throwing away all game, so I knew I could stay back.”
Wetherholt said he’s seen some crazy things in his first season, including Charlotte taking its third baseman and putting him in left field with two strikes.
“That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
He’s persevered through it all, riding the ups and downs along the way in putting together a freshman season that’s seen him drive in 33 runs.
“It definitely depends on how you look at it,” Wetherholt said. “I think my first Big 12 game, I was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, so that’s not exactly great. Every game is different. You’re not going 4 for 4 every game. There’s going to be ups and downs, so it’s a matter of staying level-headed.”
McGwire Holbrook, Dayne Leonard and Eric Dowdell also added three RBI’s and Dowdell’s came on a three-run pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning, when the Mountaineers scored seven times to put the game away.
Jacob Watters picked up his third win of the season. He went five innings and gave up two runs.
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