West Virginia pitcher Jack Kartsonas has been named the WVU Student-Athlete of the week presented by WVU University Apartments. Read more: WVU’s Kartsonas Named Student-Athlete Of The Week.
Kartsonas’ most recent win came on Sunday against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, where he pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out seven batters with no walks in the 5-0 Mountaineer victory.
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Kartsonas: A Rising Star In West Virginia
Kartsonas has shown tremendous improvement during his time with West Virginia. He struggled during his time with Kent State as he posted an ERA of 5.95 in 2024 (the worst ERA of his college career). In 2023 Kartsonas finished the season with an ERA of 2.20, 4.31 in 2021, and 3.86 in 2020 at John Carroll. Since coming to West Virginia, Kartsonas is 4-0 as a starter, he has 51 strikeouts in 44 innings and has a team-low 1.84 ERA.
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Prior to coming to West Virginia, Kartsonas had a record of 8-7 over the first four years of his college career, he is now 6-1 with the Mountaineers.
What Makes Kartsonas Successful With The Mountaineers?
What is the key to Kartsona’s success as a Mountaineer? In a recent interview he credited much of his success to being in the bullpen and being able to “slow down” and all the resources that WVU has to offer.
“All our resources here have been a big deal for me,” he said. “Getting on Trackman during my first bullpen off of surgery, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. That’s been huge for me. Like learning that a sinker comes naturally to me, that’s been big.”- Kartsonas
“I think the reason I’ve been successful the last two weeks is that when you’re in the bullpen, you’re hot four times a week.”
“I’ve been able to slow down, work on my pitches, and throw a bullpen during the week. I think that’s been a really big contributor to my success over the last two weeks.”
“I threw like 35-40 [pitches] at BYU, and then 50 at Utah, and then last week was a big jump to right around 100 pitches. But throwing that many pitches last week, it’s about the same that I threw this week, so the adjustment wasn’t too big. … It’s been a progression.”- Kartsonas
Remaining Schedule For The Mountaineers
Kartsonas and the Mountaineers look to finish the season strong as they will travel to Pittsburgh to face the Panthers at Charles L Cost Field on Tuesday at 6 p.m. West Virginia will then travel Manhattan Kansas to face the Kansas State Wildcats over the weekend. The Mountaineers will close out the regular season at Kendrick Family Ballpark in Morgantown against the Kansas Jayhawks (April 15-17).
The Mountaineers currently sit at the top of the Big 12 Conference with an overall record of 39-7 and a conference record of 18-4.
Kansas State sits at number six in the Big 12 with an overall record of 28-20 and a conference record of 14-10.
The Kansas Jayhawks sit at number three in the Big 12 with an overall record of 36-13 and a conference record of 15-9.
