WVU Gets Commitment from former Pitt Reliever Chase Smith

Right-handed pitcher Chase Smith, one of Pitt baseball’s best bullpen arms, announced on Thursday evening that he would be transferring to West Virginia for the 2022 season. Smith graduated from Pitt in April, but still has two years of eligibility remaining, given the blanket year of additional eligibility the NCAA granted to all athletes. 

Let’s go to Omaha. @WVUBaseball @stevesabins pic.twitter.com/0uxCe3xZMo

— Chase Smith (@chase_s29) June 24, 2021

Smith appeared in 33 games this past spring, primarily working as the set-up man ahead of closer Jordan McCrum. In 2021 He got off to a rocky start, which inflated his end-of-season metrics. 

The Marieta, Georgia native allowed 12 earned runs over his first ten appearances, which spanned 12 innings. But from the beginning of May through the end of the season, he was lights out, surrendering just four earned runs over his final 14 games.

Smith ended the season with a 2-2 record, a 5.47 ERA and a .291 opponent batting average, which diverged severely from his past body of work built over four years with the Panthers. He ends his career at Pitt with a 3.33 ERA, .237 opponent average and 8-10 record over 129 ⅔ innings pitched. 

He helped the Panthers to one of their best seasons in recent memory during the 2021 campaign, during which they earned a program record six ACC series wins and 17 Quad-1 wins, but narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament.