I fully expected my JJ Wetherholt column to be the only thing I wrote today. Then the eighth inning of game three between No. 12 WVU and Cincinnati happened. I can’t hold my tongue on this one. Read more: Sunday scaries: A slap in the face to WVU’s bullpen.
In the same week as a 23-1 home loss in the Backyard Brawl, the Mountaineers blew a 5-2 lead in one of the worst possible ways Sunday.
The disaster itself
Leading by three runs entering the bottom of the eighth, WVU rolled out Reese Bassinger to relieve Carson Estridge after a hit. Mind you, Bassinger tossed 78 pitches in game one Friday.
The Bearcats took the Texas native to school.
Bassinger allowed four base hits, followed by the defense giving up an error, and finished his shift by gifting Cincinnati another hit. UC had a 7-5 lead in the blink of an eye.
That was enough to seal the deal. The insult to injury, though?
WVU had Friday starter Ian Korn as the only pitcher warming up to take over for Bassinger, but the Mountaineers turned a double play to escape purgatory.
No faith in the pen
Circling back to the Pitt loss, WVU sent out nine different pitchers. Meanwhile, Bassinger was left in during a crucial Big 12 rubber match with standings implications on the line. Granted, the Mountaineers tore through pitchers in the first two games, but it’s a bizarre choice.
Now you have to wonder what that tells us about their faith in the other bullpen arms. The best way to shake off the horrors of the Pitt game, in my opinion, is to send them back out there — but what do I know?
Quick blurbs
The fan side of me has to say “it sure would be nice to have a stellar relief arm right about now!” and think of Chase Meyer. It wasn’t always a guarantee, but imagine having someone capable of getting out of the jam.
The next point is that we’ve seen this before, just a year ago. The late season meltdowns in the worst possible ways from 2025 are often forgotten due to the postseason success that followed, and rightfully so. But it’s worth noting WVU had a cakewalk to the regular season title, and almost blew it by losing seven of the final 10 regular season games.
You have to think back to the two series to Kansas State and Kansas, respectively. Same thing with the second respective matchups against Penn State and Pitt. They lost steam.
While I’m relatively sure there’s a method to the madness (WVU is still No. 12 in the country until Monday morning after all), it just makes no sense to an outsider.
All can be forgiven with another postseason surge, but there is reason for concern.
WVU Baseball gets a chance to wash away the week and re-tool for the final stretch with another date against the Nittany Lions. The Mountaineers head to State College Wednesday for a 5:30 p.m. first pitch.
Tune in
Remember, you can catch all the action (good and bad) on 100.9 FM The Torch or any of its nine affiliate stations across the John Fredericks Media Network for play-by-play coverage.
ESPN+ has the TV broadcast Wednesday.
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I’m a longtime baseball fan and this is what sticks out to me. We have a tired team with over worked starters. We brought in several players who should have been seeing more time in the field. Let’s start with position players like Molessa, Maggy, Erdos and Sims have to start a little more and of course Robaugh and Barjam, to rest our starters in the field. You have to give them some time to build their confidence which is invaluable late in the year like now. Case in point one of our best fielders T. Hall has hit a slump at bat and has made more errors lately in my opinion due to not enough rest. When to season started and everyone was fresh, we had some ot the highest batting averages in the conference and now that has tailed off and we are not getting the clutch hits when needed. Some will say that’s baseball and I agree but some of it can be attributed tired players. Another example when we resumed to second game over the weekend after a night’s rest we played much better. The pitching is bad and we have to trust some of these arms we have in the bull pen and not overwork starters as well as a few relief pitchers. The relief guys have to get work so it can pay off at the end of the season and we got fooled into thinking a freshmen could be our closer. He could be alright if he had another quality closer to work with as we had at the beginning of the season. The point of resting the starter more may have resulted in loss or two more but would helped in long run like now. Hopefully they can get their second wind and finish to season on a better note. Rest, Rest, Rest is very important. These guys are kid’s not workhorses…Go Mountaineers!
Agreed. We saw it last year down the stretch. Thanks for reading!
The message to the other pitchers in the bullpen is: “I don’t trust you, you’re not very good.” Thats the bigger problem. 10 pitchers sitting in the pen and you bring in someone who threw 78 pitches on Friday- then warm up another starter who threw on Friday —while all the other pitchers sit. Ate they part of the team? Not a team building play or a confidence booster.