Another week of the summer has passed, and it’s time for another edition of “Around the Farm” to see what current and former Mountaineers are up to in the WVU Baseball offseason. Read more: Around the Farm #4: A silver medal and more updates.
This week, I’ll wrap up coverage of Gavin Kelly’s national team experience and, as always, highlight the top five performers across summer league ball and MiLB.
Keep reading until the end to see who I name Mountaineer summer league and MiLB Player of the Week for the week of July 14-20.
Read more: Around the Farm #3: Mountaineers making history in summer baseball
Gavin Kelly returns to the US with a silver medal
Gavin Kelly wrapped up US Collegiate National Team play on Wednesday with a trip to the Gold Medal Game of the World Collegiate Baseball Championship in Taiwan.
Kelly and the U.S. fell to Japan in the championship game, 6-3, in an 11-inning thriller, and receive silver medals.
The U.S. started strong, scoring the first two runs of the game, but Japan tied it up in the seventh inning. Both squads would score a run in the tenth inning, but Japan would come out on top with three runs in the eleventh.
Kelly was the designated hitter and batted third for the U.S. in the final game. He contributed two RBI and had two hits, one of which was a double.
Overall, the US won three games in the tournament, including a 3-2 win over Japan in the round robin portion.
Although it did not end with gold, Kelly shared gratitude on social media for the opportunity.
“Representing the country I love while playing the sport I love was truly a dream come true.” – Gavin Kelly via @gavink2lly/Instagram
Kelly was quick to return to the game as he made his season debut Monday with the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod League. He played for Bourne this past summer as well.
In his return, Kelly had two hits as the Braves defeated the Orleans Firebirds 7-2.
Summer league top performers
There’s not too much time left in the various summer leagues’ seasons, but a handful of Mountaineers are still standing out.
The only notable change this week was that the MLB Draft League welcomed non-collegiate players to its rosters following the 2026 MLB Draft. The lone Mountaineer in the league this summer, Carson Estridge, signed with the Houston Astros and is no longer competing with the West Virginia Black Bears.
Related: Estridge inks UDFA deal with Houston Astros
The first player to be highlighted this week is Sean Goldy, who had a great week as a two-way player with the Staunton Braves of the Valley Baseball League.
As a pitcher, Goldy pitched in relief for two innings across two games and was the winning pitcher for one of his appearances. Overall, Goldy allowed no hits or runs and recorded two strikeouts.
As a batter, Goldy hit a triple and recorded two RBI across two games.
Top performers, cont.
Next, David Hagen was also a winning pitcher this week in one start for the Willmar Stingers of the Northwoods League.
Hagen pitched five innings and struck out six batters in his lone appearance this week.
In the Appalachian League, Matthew Robaugh of the Bluefield Ridge Runners put up a solid stat line this week. He was the Mountaineer Summer League Player of the Week this past week.
Robaugh played five games and recorded at least one hit in each contest. In total, he had 10 hits and two RBI.
Sticking with the Appalachian League, Creed Erdos of the Pulaski River Turtles also recorded at least one hit in every appearance this week.
Overall, Erdos played four games and recorded six hits and seven RBI.
The last summer league top performer this week is Joshua Surigao of the Bourne Braves, who had one relief pitching appearance this week.
Surigao pitched 2.1 innings, allowed no hits or runs and punched out three batters.
I’d also like to give an honorable mention to Weston Mazey and Colton Sims of the Richmond Flying Mummies for a spectacular defensive play they pulled off this week.
Related: WVU Baseball players make amazing defensive play in summer league
MiLB top performers
It was a short week for the MiLB due to the MLB All-Star break. Therefore, MiLB games were only played Friday-Sunday this week. Nonetheless, I still have five top performances to share.
First up, Jackson Wolf of the El Paso Chihuahuas is the only Triple-A player to make this week’s list.
Wolf was the starting pitcher for one game this week. He pitched five innings, only allowed three hits and two runs and recorded four strikeouts.
Next up, David Hagaman (Hillsboro Hops) and Derek Clark (Rancho Cucamonga Quakes) were the loan former Mountaineer named winning pitchers this week.
Hagaman started one game and pitched 6.2 innings. He only allowed two runs and fanned two batters.
Clark also started one game, pitching five innings. He had an impressive seven strikeouts.
Onto the batters, Kyle West and Skylar King both make the list for the third week in a row. King was my Mountaineer MiLB Player of the Week in the previous edition of the “Around the Farm” series.
West had the only RBI of former Mountaineers in MiLB this week. In addition to his one RBI, West had one hit over three games.
King recorded three hits across two games.
Players of the Week
Overall, both the summer leagues and MiLB presented a tough decision for my players of the week this week.
For the Mountaineer Summer League Player of the Week, I’m going to give it to Creed Erdos. The fact that he had more RBI than hits this week is impressive, and he played a pivotal role in victories.
For the first time, I’m going to name a pitcher Mountaineer MiLB Player of the Week. David Hagaman had a lengthy outing, but kept the game under control and earned the win. Shoutout to Clark for being a strikeout machine this week, though.
That wraps up another edition of “Around the Farm.” This time next week, I will break down the top performers again.
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