MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Junior Braden Barry has been named the WVU Student-Athlete of the Week presented by University Apartments after his strong week on and off the field.
Facing Texas in the final week of the regular season, Barry had a hit in all three games of the series while knocking in three runs. On Saturday, he hit his eighth home run of the season and made a stellar diving catch in center field the following inning.
Off the field, the Louisville native earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District for the second year in a row. He is a finance major with a 3.77 GPA while also hitting .302 with eight home runs, 19 doubles, 43 RBI, 55 runs, and 21 stolen bases.
This Week in Baseball: West Virginia heads to Arlington, Texas this week for the Big 12 Tournament … the Mountaineers are the No. 3 seed and will play No. 6 seed Texas Tech, Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET … the winner will play the winner of the No. 2 Oklahoma State – No. 7 Oklahoma game, Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET while the losers of the two games will play Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Last Week in Baseball: The Mountaineers earned their first-ever Big 12 title as they finished the year 15-9 in league play, tied at the top of the standings with Texas and Oklahoma State … WVU dropped all three games to the Longhorns over the weekend … the Mountaineers fell, 12-2, in the first game on Thursday … in game two, WVU lost, 10-4 … junior Landon Wallace hit his 10th home run of the season … in the final game of the series and the regular season, the Mountaineers fell, 7-3 … junior Braden Barry and freshman Sam White each hit home runs.
Notes: For the seventh time in 10 years in the Big 12, the Mountaineers finished above their preseason projections as they were picked sixth in the Big 12 preseason poll … junior Braden Barry and sophomore JJ Wetherholt earned Academic All-District honors from College Sports Communicators … both players are finance majors with Barry carrying a 3.77 cumulative GPA and Wetherholt posting a 3.90 GPA … it is the second year in a row that Barry has earned Academic All-District status while this is the first selection for Wetherholt … Wetherholt continues to lead all Power 5 players in batting average at .447, second-best in the country behind FAU’s Nolan Schanuel … the sophomore was also named a Golden Spikes Semifinalist, the only Big 12 representative on the list of 25 student-athletes from across the nation.
This Week in Track and Field: Seven Mountaineers are set to compete in the 2023 NCAA East Preliminary Round in Jacksonville, Florida, from May 24-27 … the University of North Florida will play host to the meet at the Visit Jax Track at Hodges Stadium.
Last Week in Track and Field: West Virginia was off last week.
Notes: Redshirt seniors Hayley Jackson (1,500 meters) and Mikaela Lucki (1,500 meters, 5,000 meters), seniors Rachel Butler (10,000 meters) and Katherine Dowie (3,000-meter steeplechase), redshirt junior Charlotte Wood (10,000 meters), junior Ceili McCabe (3,000 meter-steeplechase) and sophomore Cassandra Williamson (800 meters) all ranked inside the top 48 in their respective events in the NCAA East Region to earn a spot at the preliminary championships … junior Mikenna Vanderheyden also qualified for the preliminary round in the 3,000-meter steeplechase but was forced to scratch from the meet due to an injury … Jackson, Butler, Williamson and Wood will race on Thursday, May 25, while Dowie and McCabe will compete on Saturday, May 27 … Lucki will race on both days … qualifiers out of the East and West Regions who place in the top 12 in their events will advance to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas, from June 7-10.
