GRANVILLE — To give you an idea of just how limited Tyler Doanes’ playing time has been this season, his two hits April 18 raised his batting average 40 points.
That is no knock on the freshman, but a glimpse at just how deep the WVU baseball team is at the infield positions.
“He was actually in our lineup at the beginning of the year, that’s how highly we thought of him,” WVU head coach Randy Mazey said after the Mountaineers’ 9-2 victory against Canisius in front of 933 inside Monongalia County Ballpark. “He’s a freshman and put a little too much pressure on himself. He had to sit back and watch some more experienced guys do it first.”
That is not a new story for a freshman, even one who was ranked as the seventh-best shortstop from the state of Georgia last season.
“It’s been an adjustment,” said Doanes, who is batting .281 this season and went 2-for-3 and added his third triple, a hit that drove in two runs. “Going from high school to here, there’s a lot more going on.”
Doanes is a native of Fayetteville, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, which is a story in itself with the Mountaineers.
Mazey’s background with TCU has led WVU to eight Texas players on the roster. The Mountaineers boast 19 players from traditional recruiting spots in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.
Fayetteville, Ga., though, is SEC territory and far from fertile recruiting ground for the Mountaineers.
“Honestly, I don’t know how it happened,” Doanes said when asked how the SEC schools let him get away to Morgantown.
“We’ve had some success in Atlanta,” added Mazey. WVU two-way star Braden “Zarbnisky is from Atlanta. We’ve had some guys in the past from Atlanta and we’ve got a couple more for next year.
“It’s a really good area and this place attracts people. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, when you come here, you fall in love with the place. He did and I’m awfully glad he did.”
Playing in a last-second scheduled game against the Golden Griffins (20-12), Doanes continued a hitting surge that began last weekend against Oklahoma State.
His triple came in a four-run seventh inning that sealed the deal for WVU (17-17).
He took a fastball and drove it to the right-center field gap that scored teammates Kyle Gray and Marques Inman.
His speed allowed him to slide way ahead of the relay to third. In his last three games, Doanes is 5-for-10 with five RBIs.
“The sky is the limit for him,” Mazey said. “He is really talented. He’s got a lot of life in his body. You could see when he hit that triple, his uniform was just a blur running around the bases. A kid who can hit, run the bases and play defense can play for a long time.”
Isaiah Kerns picked up his second win of the season and allowed five hits and two runs over four innings. He struck out eight.
Inman added three RBIs, including a two-run double in the third that gave the Mountaineers the lead for good, 3-2.
WVU will host a crucial three-game Big 12 series against Kansas State, beginning at 6:30 p.m. April 20.
