WVU’s Davis Plays in CSBI Baseball Tournament

For the first time since early March, live college baseball was played in the U.S. last night. Broadcast on ESPN2 were the first two games of the 2020 Collegiate Summer Baseball Invitational (CSBI).

The CSBI is a four-team tournament with collegiate players from all over the country. The four 2020 teams claim to have players from more than 70 Division-I teams.

One of those players is West Virginia right fielder Austin Davis. Davis started in center field and batted leadoff for CSBI Unity in game one yesterday. CSBI Unity eventually lost to CSBI Liberty in extra innings, but Davis had a couple of big hits for his team.

With the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Daivs shot a ball down the right field line, driving in a pair of runs to help continue a CSBI Unity comeback.

Our guy @Adavis_21 with a two-run single in the opening game of @CSBI2020!#HailWV pic.twitter.com/uE62Rgr0RG

— WVU Baseball (@WVUBaseball) June 5, 2020

Down by one with a runner on third and no outs in the bottom of the ninth inning Davis came through again for CSBI Unity, hitting a ball that was up and in hard enough that the third baseman could not handle it cleanly, allowing the game-tying run to score.

🧊🧊🧊@Adavis_21 ties the game at 6-6 with this RBI single in the bottom of the 9th!#HailWV pic.twitter.com/38DMWUPjiC

— WVU Baseball (@WVUBaseball) June 5, 2020

Before the season’s abrupt end, Davis was en route to have a breakout sophomore season for the Mountaineers in 2020. With the graduations of Brandon White, T.J. Lake and Darius Hill, WVU was left without any returning outfielders entering this season. Senior Braden Zarbnisky was set to return from injury and play left field and true freshman Victor Scott was penciled in to start in center. That left the starting spot in right field up for grabs and Davis grabbed a firm hold of that spot.

In 16 games this season, Davis hit .322, with 19 hits, four doubles, 10 RBI and nine runs scored. His 25 total bases were third on the team. Davis had a torrid start to the season, with three three-hit performances in the team’s first five games. Davis’s best performance of the season came against Richmond when he went 4-5 with two RBI, three runs scored and two stolen bases.