For the fourth time in just six starts this season, Blaine Traxel threw a complete game as he went the distance yet again on Saturday for the West Virginia baseball team in a 7-2 win over Xavier. The Mountaineers improve to 18-5 while the Musketeers fall to 10-12. It was also the 500th win of head coach Randy Mazey’s career.
Traxel struck out seven and allowed just the two runs. The graduate student is now up to 49.0 innings pitched on the season which leads the nation and is also the first Big 12 pitcher since 2019 to have thrown four complete games in one season.
While Traxel continued his dominance on the mound, sophomore JJ Wetherholt’s spectacular season continued at the plate as he went 4-for-5 with a home run, three runs scored, three RBI, and a stolen base. His average is now up to .474 for the season, 50 points higher than the next best in the Big 12.
Junior Braden Barry and Ellis Garcia also hit home runs as part of their two hits each on the day.
The Mountaineers jumped out to an early lead in the first as Wetherholt singled to lead off the game before coming around to score on a double by redshirt-senior Dayne Leonard.
Xavier tied up the game in the fourth on a solo home run, but Garcia put WVU back up in the home half with his second home run of the season, nearly hitting the ball out of the entire stadium.
After a couple of scoreless innings, Xavier tied up the game once again in the seventh with another solo home run.
In the bottom of the seventh, Wetherholt nearly hit a home run, but settled for a double off the very top of the wall with two outs before Barry came up clutch with a single up the middle give WVU the lead once more.
The Mountaineers put the game away in the eighth with four runs, all with two outs. Junior Landon Wallace singled and graduate student Tevin Tucker Walked before Wetherholt clobbered a three-run home run over the left-center field wall. While the celebration was still going on in the dugout, Barry went back-to-back on the first pitch for his fifth home run of the season.
Given extra breathing room, Traxel did not need it as he got through the ninth on just five pitches to secure his fifth win of the season.
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