Five Things to Know Before WVU Baseball vs. Charlotte

The West Virginia University baseball team (3-1) is traveling to Charlotte to take on the Charlotte 49ers (2-1) in a three game series. West Virginia Sports Now has you covered with five things to know about the upcoming series.

Young starters

Only one upperclassman is expected to be the starting pitcher in the series for either team as they will be trotting out a combined three sophomores and two freshmen. West Virginia is projected to start sophomores RHP Carlson Reed (0-0, 6.75 ERA, 4 K, 3 BB, 2.2 IP) and LHP Ben Hampton (1-0, 3.60 ERA, 10 K, 2 BB, 5.0 IP) and freshman RHP Chris Sleeper (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 5 K, 1 BB, 5.0 IP).

Charlotte is projected to start sophomore LHP Spencer Giesting (0-0, 2.25 ERA, 4 K, 0 BB, 4.0 IP), freshman RHP Cameron Hansen (0-0, 2.25 ERA, 5 K, 2 BB, 4.0 IP) and the lone senior, LHP Will Lancaster (1-0, 1.69 ERA, 3 K, 1 BB, 5.1 IP).

Strong starts, tough schedules

Both West Virginia and Charlotte have gotten off to strong starts despite tough schedules to start the year. Charlotte started off in a tournament in Tampa Bay, Florida and played three programs in much larger athletic departments: Louisville, UCONN and USF. Charlotte won games against UCONN (7-3) and USF (8-3) with the lone loss coming against Louisville by a single run, 8-7.

West Virginia is coming off the Baseball at the Beach tournament in Conway, South Carolina. While there, they won two games against No. 16 Central Michigan (0-3) by a combined score of 23-8 and an 8-3 win against Kent State (1-2). The lone loss came against Coastal Carolina (3-1) by only two runs, 7-9.

Freshmen start the season hot

Two freshmen had great debuts in South Carolina. Freshman INF JJ Wetherholt was named the Big 12 Newcomer and WVU Student-Athlete of the Week on Monday. The former WPIAL player from Mars went 7-for-17 with a double, triple, home run, four runs scored, two stolen bases and six RBI in Coastal while freshman INF Grant Hussey had three home runs in the season’s first four games including a grand slam in the first game of the season.

Rising in the polls

After their hot start in South Carolina, West Virginia found themselves ranked in their first poll of 2022. They slotted in at No. 30 this past week in Collegiate Baseball. They also received votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll. Prior to this week, the only poll that West Virginia had received any votes in was the NCBWA.

Country roads or home sweet home

The two teams are having two significantly different geographic starts to the season. Nine of West Virginia’s first ten games are on the road, with the lone home game coming against Canisius (2-2) on March 1st. Meanwhile, Charlotte is starting an 18-game home stand with their series against West Virginia.

All three games will be streamed on ESPN+. They will take place on Friday at 4:00 p.m., Saturday 3:00 p.m. and Sunday at noon.