CHARLESTON — By his own account, Caleb McNeely was always a baseball player craving the spotlight that never seemed to arrive.
Big moments do not make the WVU right fielder nervous. In fact, he sort of thrives under the gun.
“I’m just glad to be here now and showcase my skills on TV,” McNeely said Wednesday after smacking two home runs to lead the No. 24 Mountaineers to a 15-9 victory over Marshall inside a jam-packed GoMart Ballpark.
TV cameras were hard to come by in a career spent at Walters State (Tenn.) C.C.
Rare is it for any college athlete to spend four years at the junior-college level, but that’s where McNeely’s journey begins.
“I kind of got stuck in junior college,” McNeely said. “It is what it is. I was redshirted one year and then COVID hit and I was just there.”
Along the way, there were thoughts in his mind if anyone would ever notice him, but then he went out and hit 25 home runs in one season, and, well, people suddenly took notice.
There is a story, too, behind his powerful right-handed swing.
“I never hit one in high school, I wasn’t big enough,” the Kentucky native said. “I graduated at 150 pounds. I was a little guy.”
Through his years in junior college, he was introduced to the weight room and a lot of delivery pizzas.
“A lot of pizza and a lot of work,” he admits. “The weight started to come and so did my power.”
Against Marshall (13-13), McNeely’s first home run went hard at the scoreboard out in the left-center power alley.
“I thought it was going to go over the scoreboard,” he said.
His second one, which gave the Mountaineers (22-7) the lead for good at 11-9 in the eighth inning, was a blast that easily surpassed 400 feet.
“He’s starting to come on pretty strong right now,” WVU manager Randy Mazey said, in what may be the understatement of the season.
McNeely has hit four home runs over his last four games and now leads the Mountaineers with eight. Against Kansas State last weekend, he became just the fourth WVU player to hit for the cycle in a game.
“He’s in a really good spot right now,” Mazey continued. “He’s carrying us offensively. That’s just him. He’s hitting all pitches. He swings and misses a little bit, but you give that up a little bit when he hits the ball a mile and a half.”
McNeely’s teammates added plenty of offensive power around him.
Grant Hussey added three hits, including a two-run home run in the second inning that gave WVU an early 2-0 lead.
J.J. Wetherholt had two singles for his 18th multi-hit game of the season and Braden Barry rocketed two balls off the fence for doubles that drove in two more runs.
It was West Virginia’s sixth consecutive win over the Thundering Herd, including a sweep this season in two games that featured spirited crowds in Morgantown and Charleston.
“They compete so hard against us,” Mazey said. “I don’t know how they play in their other 54 games, but when they play us, it’s always a dog fight.”
Maxx Yehl was the sixth of eight pitchers Mazey used in the game. Yehl (1-0) picked up his first win of the season.
He gave up one hit and no runs in an inning of work.
And then there was McNeely, the one-time little kid who always yearned to come up big.
In his final season of college eligibility, he’s doing exactly that.
“To be honest, I’ve hit like this before, but it was junior college,” he said. “I don’t think that counts the same as it does at this level. I’m just trying not to ride the roller coaster so much and stay level-headed.”
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