West Virginia Pounds Pitt - Takes Backyard Brawl Series

Freshman Aidan Major silences the Panthers at the plate while Braden Barry and Victor Scott account for 6 RBIs in a Backyard Brawl series-clinching win

Granville, WV - West Virginia freshman Aidan Major tossed six scoreless innings, while Victor Scott and Braden Barry provided three-run home runs as the Mountaineers (29-18) pummeled the Pitt Panthers (26-20) 9-1 Tuesday evening, taking the Backyard Brawl series 2-1. 

West Virginia baserunner Braden Barry rounding third in the first inning.  / Christopher Hall - Sports Illustrated: West Virginia

Austin Davis delivered a leadoff single in the bottom of the first followed by a double from J.J. Wetherholt before McGwire Holbrook hit a base hard two-RBI single back up the middle. Then, Kevin Dowdell capped off the three-run first inning with a double into the right field corner. 

Victor Scott hit a towering 409-foot three-run home run in the sixth that landed on top of the facilities building in right field, extending the lead to 6-0.

"That's one of the farthest balls that's ever been hit at this field in that direction. It went on the roof of my office up there, said Mazey."

Aidan Major faced the minimum through five innings before walking a pair of Pitt Panthers in the sixth but got out of the inning unscathed with a pair of strikeouts and picked off CJ Funk at second to end the inning. Mazey did not send Major out in the seventh, ending his night with a career-high eight strikeouts, breaking up the no-hitter. 

"I've got a lot of tough decisions to make during the game, that wasn't one of them." said Mazey. "I was going to get him out after the fifth, but he was throwing good - didn't want to give him four at bats off of somebody else."

Major had not thrown more than 3.1 innings prior to Tuesday's matchup, and no more than 60 pitches in an outing, which happened to be last week. However, Major unexpectedly going through six innings helped a shorthanded bullpen.

"We wanted to make sure we held them to zeros through six because we didn't have (Midseason Stopper of the Year Trey) Braithwaite available, didn't have Chase Smith, as much as they threw [over the weekend], and Noah Short wasn't feeling great again, so the bullpen was a little shorter today." 

West Virginia freshman pitcher Aidan Major delivering a pitch against Pitt.  / Christopher Hall - Sports Illustrated: West Virginia

Major to his defense making plays, and a sold-out crowd fueled the freshman.

"I was just feeding off the energy that they brought. They packed it out and brought a lot of energy and it's really easy to feed off that," said Major. "So, having them behind me, having my guys behind me, definitely helped tonight."

In the seventh, Ron Washington Jr. broke a potential combined no-hitter with a one-out solo home run to put the Panthers on the board. 

In the bottom of the inning, Braden Barry drove a three-run homer over the left field wall and into the Pitt bullpen to break the game open and extending the Mountaineer lead to eight, 9-1. 

Michael Kilker threw a hitless eighth and Carlson Reed kept the Panthers off the board in the ninth as the Mountaineers crush Pit 9-1 and take the three-game Backyard series from the Panthers 2-1. 

West Virginia is back in action on Friday in the first game of a three-game conference series versus the Oklahoma Sooners, with the first pitch set for 7:30 pm EST. Game two is scheduled for Saturday at 3:30 and the series finale is Sunday at 1:00 pm. 

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