WVU counting on Kelly’s bat in clash with ASU
AP Photo/Sean Rayford
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — On March 26, former West Virginia baseball player J.J. Wetherholt will make his MLB debut for the St. Louis Cardinals as they host the Tampa Bay Rays at 4:15 p.m., becoming the 32nd Mountaineer to reach the big leagues.
Wetherholt was called up to the majors as the league’s No. 5 overall prospect. After he was drafted with the seventh overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, Wetherhold hit .304 with a .931 OPS across the lower leagues and drove in 19 home runs. Wetherholt will play second base for the Cardinals.
Since Wetherholt left, WVU has had another infielder step up and could have another second baseman in the majors in a few years, with the success of its current second baseman and catcher, Gavin Kelly. Kelly was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman team in 2025 and hit .299 with two home runs and 37 RBIs. In his second season, Kelly’s off to a hot start. Kelly leads the No. 17 Mountaineers in doubles (11) and is second on the team in batting average (.416), which is just behind Paul Schoenfeld, who had a big past weekend, boosting his average.
Kelly is one of WVU’s best overall hitters this year, hitting out of the two-spot. Along with his really high batting average, Kelly has hit three home runs, leads the team in OPS and slugging.
Like the Cardinals are hoping Wetherholt will make an impact, WVU is going to really need Kelly to keep his hot start rolling when it heads out west to play its first ranked opponent of the season in a three-game series against No. 22 Arizona State, who is the only other ranked Big 12 team. All three games are late for the East Coast, with first pitch on Friday and Saturday at 9:30 p.m., and Sunday at 8 p.m. The first two games are on ESPN+, but the last game of the series is on ESPN2.
The Sun Devils are 19-6 on the year, 4-2 in the Big 12, and have won 11 of their last 13 games. Arizona State has had a gauntlet of a schedule, too. The Sun Devils have faced No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 6 Mississippi State, No. 21 Tennessee, No. 25 Texas A&M and TCU, who was ranked No. 17 at the time. Arizona State split with Oklahoma and took a three-game series against the Horned Frogs. Arizona State is deserving of the top 25 rankings and has won its last two.
The Sun Devils are one of the more complete teams in the Big 12 this year, and were ranked as the fourth-best team in the conference in the preseason rankings, which was one spot behind WVU. Arizona State has the second-best offense in the Big 12 and fourth-best pitching staff.
The Sun Devils’ Landon Hairston leads his team in batting average (.458) and the entire Big 12. He’s ninth in all of college baseball. Hairston is tied with Kelly with doubles, but is third in the conference with 11 home runs. All around, he’s one of the best hitters in the Big 12. Dean Toigo is another name to watch for, hitting .330 and second on the team in RBIs with 30.
If WVU head coach Steve Sabins keeps the rotation the same, with Maxx Yehl starting in the Sunday game, it could be Yehl, who is one of the best pitchers in the nation, against Hairston, who is the best hitter in the Big 12 and a top hitter in the country, on national television.
Cole Carlon is Arizona State’s top pitcher and usually starts the first game of the series. He boasts a 3.19 ERA and two wins in six appearances. He leads the team with 48 strikeouts, which is eight per start, and is second in the conference. Carlon has four more than Yehl. The only issue with Carlon is that he’s allowed six home runs, so WVU’s bigger bats, like Matthew Graveline or even Kelly, could hit one out over the weekend.
Kole Klecker is another one of Arizona State’s starters who should see action in one of the three games. Klecker gets a lot of strikeouts, but isn’t as dominant as Carlon, and was lit up against Kansas State.
With Arizona State’s top offense and strong pitching staff, and WVU’s hot start, this weekend could be a preview of the Big 12 tournament championship at the end of May. Kelly and the rest of the Mountaineers will have a tough challenge if it wants to keep up their undefeated series streak, and remain climbing up the Division I Baseball rankings as the top team in the conference.