WVU Baseball is Practicing Making Highlight Plays With the Help of the Gymnastics Team

Thursday morning the WVU Baseball team tweeted out a video showing players practicing a rather unconventional fielding drill.

Preparing for the extraordinary.#HailWV pic.twitter.com/Eww10ILAD4

— WVU Baseball (@WVUBaseball) January 23, 2020

In the video, players are practicing making diving catches by jumping into the foam pit at Cary Gym, the practice facility for WVU gymnastics team near the Coliseum. Making ridiculous diving plays became almost the norm for the Mountaineers last season, with spectacular catches like this one by TJ Lake against TCU.

😲😲 What a catch by TJ Lake!! He saves at least a run with a fantastic diving catch to end the 1st!! WOW

Hey @SportsCenter, we found your #SCTop10 No. 1 play for tonight.

📺 https://t.co/amUf4tO3j9 #HailWV pic.twitter.com/HfXgLqTY55

— WVU Baseball (@WVUBaseball) May 4, 2019

This Brandon White catch-and-throw double play was actually number one on SportsCenter top-10.

No. 1️⃣ on #SCTop10! Brandon White is back on @SportsCenter, this time with the top play.#HailWV pic.twitter.com/yMMZSIwekp

— WVU Baseball (@WVUBaseball) March 14, 2019

WVU head coach Randy Mazey tweeted that practicing highlight plays like this is why the team has been featured on SportsCenter Top-10 so much.

The Mountaineers have led the Big 12 in SportsCenter top 10 plays, we’ve had at least 6! Here’s why, we practice them! Thanks to WVU gymnastics team for letting us use their pit. https://t.co/99twLlpxjW

— Coach Randy Mazey (@CoachMazey) January 23, 2020

The video made its way around the WVU circles of Twitter with nearly 200 retweets and more than 1,600 likes, even catching the eye of WVU football wide receiver T.J. Simmons, who seems to like the idea of practicing highlight plays.

@NealBrown_WVU They might be on to something right here! https://t.co/EmxwYnAgPN

— Tj Simmons (@a_scouts_dream) January 24, 2020

WVU baseball opens the season on Feb. 14 in Jacksonville, Florida. The team’s first game at home will be on Feb. 18 against Canisus.