Penn State designated hitter Michael Anderson, pictured, has 15 home runs and 40 RBIs entering Wednesday's game against No. 15 West Virginia.

MORGANTOWN — As far as facing some big boppers, 15th-ranked West Virginia is already well aware of their hits and the damage they can do.

The Mountaineers (24-8) are scheduled to face even more of them this season, including today’s 5:30 p.m. matchup against Penn State (10-23) inside newly renovated Meritus Park in Hagerstown, Md.

The three top home run hitters in all of college baseball – Arizona State’s Landon Hairston (23), Cincinnati’s Quinton Coats (21) and Oklahoma State’s Kollin Ritchie (20) – all play in the Big 12.

WVU has already faced Hairston and he finished with 20 total bases, four home runs and 11 RBIs over the three-game series last month.

Next week, WVU pitchers will get a look at Coats, when Cincinnati visits Morgantown.

“This league is extremely offensive right now,” WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. “The three top home run hitters in the country are all from the Big 12, so that’s pretty crazy.”

The Mountaineers will get a look at another one of the nation’s top hitters against Penn State designated hitter Michael Anderson, who comes into today’s game tied for 10th in the nation with 15 home runs. He’s already collected 40 RBIs for a team that averages just 5.6 runs per game and his OPS (1.321) looks as if it was constructed in the matrix.

“He’s just another one of those players who is an outlier,” Sabins said. “He’s got (nearly) as many home runs as the rest of his team.”

Pitching to these kinds of hitters is not an easy decision. Simply intentionally walking them isn’t always the answer, either.

According to Sabins, who elected to intentionally walk Hairston twice during that series last month, many factors will go into whether or not WVU elects to pitch to Anderson today, pitch around him or just let him walk to first base with an intentional walk.

“You saw us intentionally walk Logan Hughes last weekend at Texas Tech. You’ve seen us intentionally walk Landon Hairston,” Sabins said. “In college baseball, there are some players who are significantly more impactful than the rest of their team. You have these outlier players that you have to weigh pitching to them.

“You don’t want to have a lot of base runners, so you can’t always just keep putting them on. There is a psychological component to that as well, but the reality is when you go into a game, you don’t want Landon Hairston to beat you. You don’t want Coats to beat you.”

It doesn’t always come down to game situations, Sabins said. If two runners are already on base, that doesn’t mean it’s an automatic walk. If the bases are empty, that doesn’t mean WVU pitchers have the green light to start pumping in fastballs.

“You’ve got to be smart and you’ve got to decide when you want to take your chances,” Sabins said. “You have to look at trends and matchups. Logan Hughes was kind of an interesting guy, because he leads their team in RBIs and homers, but he was hitting .440 against right-handed pitching and .217 with two homers against left-handed pitching, so he’s a different guy.

“That doesn’t mean he won’t hit a homer against a left-handed pitcher, but it does mean you’re more likely to take your chances. You just have to make sure you have that information and play intelligently.”

The other side to whether or not WVU decides to pitch to Anderson today is the mental aspect centered around the WVU pitcher, who is expected to be sophomore righty David Hagen at the start of the game.

“You explain to the pitching staff that it’s not a knock on their ability,” by intentionally walking a good hitter, Sabins said. “It’s just playing intelligent baseball. It’s playing chess, not checkers.”

As for the game itself, WVU will be facing the Nittany Lions for the first time this season, and for the first time on a neutral field since 2018, when the two schools met at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

“We agreed to go (home-and-home) and we’ll both wear it in the pants for one of the long bus trips, but if we’re able to find somewhere closer in between, we would love to do that,” Sabins said. “This park in Hagerstown, I don’t know a ton about it, but I was told it was part of an $80 million downtown renovation project. They pitched us and had a great management team. They’re paying for the buses and are essentially paying for both teams to be there. I’ve been told it’s been sold out for a long time.

“It’s in Maryland, so it’s pretty unique to have a team from West Virginia and a team from Pennsylvania playing in Maryland, but I love it. I love it from a recruiting perspective with kids from that area and a different fan base getting to watch us play. It’s really cool.”