Checking out WVU’s soaring baseball team — and ex-Mountaineers in Major League Baseball

It warms my heart to see WVU’s baseball team atop the Big 12 standings (tied with Oklahoma) at 11-4 in league play and 22-13 overall. (This before the Tuesday, April 16, home game against Pitt.)
It’s even nicer to see WVU ranked No. 22. The only other Big 12 team in the D1Baseball Top 25 is No. 15 Oklahoma State. Before the Pitt game, the Mountaineers are/were (depending on when you read this) 22-13 and winners of seven of their last eight games which includes sweeps over Kansas and No. 17 UCF.
Senior Reed Chumley (how can you not root for a guy named Chumley?) hit a walk-off home run this past Sunday against the Knights to cap off the sweep. It was his 10th home run of the season which leads the team. Sophomore Logan Sauve leads the Mountaineers with a .338 batting average while junior Kyle West has a team-high 29 RBI.
It’s great because the Big 12 has long been known for baseball. All 13 current Big 12 schools, in fact, were represented on 2024 Major League Baseball Opening Day rosters.
Consider this a tip of the ballcap to coach Randy Mazey, who is giving way to associate head coach Steve Sabins after this season. (He’ll be the 20th head coach in program history.)
I also love to follow former WVU athletes in the professional ranks, whether it’s the NFL, NBA, WNBA or, yes, MLB.
So I checked out the ex-Mountaineers that began the season on MLB rosters.
Like Victor Scott, a 23-year-old centerfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. He broke out his junior year at WVU, was drafted in the fifth round and is now considered one of the fastest players in all of baseball.
He started on Opening Day for the Cards before 52,667 at Dodger Stadium and, although he went 0 for 3, stole his first base. That came after reaching base on a throwing error by Los Angeles shortstop Mookie Betts. His subsequent stolen base was the first Cardinals player to steal a base in his major league debut since (are you ready for this?) 1900. That’s not a typo.
“That’s what he’s going to do to a lot of people,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “You have got to be on point whenever he’s up to bat. I mean, you bobble anything and he’s going to be safe. So, he’ll continue to put pressure on the defense.”
Unfortunately, with the majority of St. Louis’ starting outfield injured, Scott has struggled mightily, with a .091 batting average and just 5 hits in 55 at-bats. There have been whispers he might be sent down to Triple-A Memphis to get more seasoning.
Scott is not the only ex-WVU player struggling though.
Remember the huge splash made by former Mountaineer Alek Manoah? In 2022, he was an All-Star and finished third in the American League Cy Young voting.
Before, that is, having a disastrous 2023 season and a shoulder injury that slowed him in spring training. In two minor league rehab starts this year he’s struggled, allowing four earned runs on eight hits in Triple-A over the weekend. That was better than the six earned runs in 1.2 innings at Single-A. There are whispers he may be traded.
Baltimore pitcher John Means, who likewise made a splash, but with an almost perfect game in 2021, is also rehabbing after experiencing a flareup in his surgically repaired left elbow. Means threw what was called one of the greatest pitching performances on that Wednesday in 2021 with a no-hitter against Seattle. He only allowed one baserunner on a third-strike wild pitch.
This year he’s made three rehab starts and is doing well while on the 15-day injured list. Once activated he’s expected to join the rotation as a replacement for Cole Irvin.
Means has been quite a story. He was an All-Star in 2019 and in his last full season, 2021, had a very solid 3.62 ERA. Unfortunately, he’s pitched in just six games over the last two seasons because of the Tommy John surgery, which kept him out until September 2023.
Of course, there’s also Wheeling native Michael Grove, a 2018 second-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The right-handed pitcher is on the active roster but struggling this season with an 8.71 ERA in 10.1 innings pitched over six games.
In his MLB career, he’s pitched 108.2 innings over 31 total games (18 starts) and is 3-3 with a 5.96 ERA.
Here’s hoping for the best for the WVU baseball team and all the Mountaineers in MLB.
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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.