MORGANTOWN — By the time pitcher Maxx Yehl walked off the mound, West Virginia baseball concluded its eighth inning on the field. Yehl didn’t come out for the ninth and pitched a season-high eight innings, slowly ramping up his Tommy John surgery in the offseason. He had 12 strikeouts, walked a batter and allowed just three hits. Yehl didn’t allow a run. It was the best day on the bump from a WVU pitcher this season.

Yehl’s performance earned him two national honors. He was named NCBWA Pitcher of the Week and earned a spot on the Baseball America National Team of the Week. Yehl was the first Mountaineer to take the NCBWA weekly honor since Alek Manoah in 2019. He had 13 strikeouts against Kansas State.

Yehl was just one of two strong pitching outings from WVU’s pitching staff. Division II transfer Chansen Cole took the mound in Game 2 and allowed two runs with five strikeouts.

The pitching has been a bright spot through the early weeks of the season, even if most of the staff are transfers or some youngsters. As of March 16, WVU’s pitching staff leads the Big 12 in ERA (3.14), opponents’ batting average (.213) and shutouts (3). That’s after a weekend facing Baylor’s big bats, too.

WVU’s arms had a week to rest, with the midweek matchup against Penn State getting canceled, and now face another 10-win Big 12 team in BYU for a three-game series. The Mountaineers host the Cougars, who are 10-9 on the year, on Thursday, March 19, with first pitch set for 4:30 p.m., and is streaming on ESPN+. WVU is rocking its Coal Rush uniforms, which feature a similar all-black look to the ones WVU football wore.

BYU’s hitting is in the middle of the pack of the Big 12. The Cougars are coming off one of their biggest offensive showings, and scored 18 runs against Utah Tech for a midweek matchup. Against Cincinnati, to open conference play, BYU’s offense scored a little over seven runs a game and won that series 2-1.

There are some notable bats that WVU’s pitching staff should be wary of. Ezra McNaughton leads the team in average, hitting over .400, and leads the team in RBIs. BYU has hit a lot of home runs to start the season, too. BYU has hit 37, and McNaughton is in front with seven. Ryder Robinson and Easton Jones have both hit six apiece.

Like coach Steve Sabins has in every three-game series, WVU is expected to roll with the same rotation of Dawson Montesa, Cole and Yehl. It’ll be a little bit of a shorter break because the game is on Thursday instead of the normal Friday. But, all pitcher will have six days since their last outing.

Pitching is where BYU struggles. Even if the Cougars won the series, they allowed Cincinnati to score 20 runs over the three games. In a three-game series against Cal Baptist, BYU’s pitching staff let up at least 10 runs a game.

WVU’s hitting has been hot. The Mountaineers are yet to be shut out this season, and scored 27 runs in three games against Baylor. After a big freshman season, Gavin Kelly is hitting .423 to start Year 2 and has 13 RBIs. WVU has five hitters over .300, and Matt Ineich is a hit or two away from being over .400.

But the focus will be on WVU’s pitching staff and keeping up with its hot start, especially against BYU’s offense. The Cougars aren’t at the caliber of the Mountaineers, but they’ve slowly been proving that they aren’t a bottom-two team like the preseason Big 12 rankings said.