MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia baseball team plays its final non-conference game of the regular season on Wednesday as the Mountaineers travel to Pitt for the third edition of the Backyard Brawl this year. WVU will be looking for the season sweep as it won both games earlier this year at PNC Park and in Morgantown. First pitch from Charles L. Cost Field is set for 6 p.m.
The game will be available to stream on ACC Network Extra and can also be heard on the Mountaineer Sports Network baseball radio network, including the flagship station 100.9 Jack FM in Morgantown, and on the Varsity Network app. Andrew Caridi will bring you all the play-by-action.
The Mountaineers enter the game with a 36-12 overall record and are ranked in all six polls, topping out at No. 11 in Baseball America and the USA Today Coaches Poll. In the NCAA-recognized D1baseball poll, West Virginia clocks in at No. 12.
Most recently, WVU took two of three from Oklahoma over the weekend to improve to 13-5 in the Big 12, opening up a two-game lead in the conference standings over Oklahoma State and Kansas State.
Sophomore JJ Wetherholt continued his stellar play and is now hitting .463 on the season, the top mark in the nation as he surpassed probable No. 1 draft pick Dylan Crews of LSU. He leads the Big 12 in 10 statistical categories while also leading the Mountaineers with 13 home runs, 19 doubles, and 52 RBI.
Freshman Carson Estridge will make his fourth start of the season, three of which will be against Pitt. Last week against the Panthers, he struck out seven in 4.0 scoreless innings.
Pitt enters the game with a 21-24 record after dropping two of three at Georgia Tech over the weekend.
Kyle Hess leads the team with a .313 batting average while Noah Martinez has 42 RBI and CJ Funk has a team-high 12 home runs.
Jack Sokol leads the Panthers with 59 strikeouts while Nash Bryan paces the team with a 3.86 ERA and five saves.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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