By: Justin “Couz” Walker | WV Sports Chat
It’s hard to believe we are already at the midway point of the college baseball season. Yet, D1 Baseball released their Mid-Season Awards on Wednesday. Three Mountaineer players received honors.
West Virginia catcher Gavin Kelly led the charge by receiving two honors. The Pittsburgh native was named to the Buster Posey Award Midseason Watch List. This award goes to the nation’s top catcher.
The versatile athlete was also named a D1 Midseason Second Team All-American as a second baseman.
Kelly, who splits time with Matthew Graveline behind the plate, has also been one of the top offensive players in the country. He is coming off a great series at Arizona State where he hit .538 with a home run and five RBIs.
For the season, the sophomore is batting .415 with a .504 on-base percentage and 44 hits. Those numbers are all good for top ten in the Big 12 Conference.
Two WVU pitchers also received recognition from D1 Baseball. Starting pitcher Maxx Yehl was named a Midseason Third-Team All-American and reliever David Perez was named to the Midseason Freshman All-American Team.
Yehl is 16th in the country with a 1.38 ERA. The 6-foot-6 lefty has 58 strikeouts so far on the year and has posted a record of 5-0 for the Mountaineers.
Perez is not your typical freshman. The Philadelphia native, who played shortstop at Archbishop Ryan High School, has struck out 18 batters in only 13.1 innings of work. He is tied for sixth in the country with six saves and he’s done it in only nine appearances.
Steve Sabins’ WVU baseball squad is now 20-5 on the season and ranked 13th in the latest D1 Baseball poll. They sit in second place in the Big 12 standings at 7-2 with first place UCF (8-1) coming to Morgantown this weekend for a three-game series.
Stay here at WV Sports Chat for continued coverage of West Virginia Mountaineer baseball.
Photo Credit: Shanna Rose/WV Sports Chat
