Marshall Baseball Preview
By Shane Darling, FM88 Sports
April 14, 2025
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) — After a disastrous fall-off in extra innings against the App. State Mountaineers, Thundering Herd baseball looks to tie-up the season series against West Virginia University on Tuesday at home.
Marshall (18-18, 6-9 SBC) hosts the red hot and dangerous Mountaineers (30-4, 10-3 Big 12) that are on a ten-game win streak.
The Herd had a chance to take the conference weekend series against Appalachian State on Sunday, and a 4-4 ball game resulted in extra baseball for the home fans. It was all downhill from that point on as a mix of errors, poor defensive decisions and hard-hitting App. State gave the Mountaineers four runs in the top of the 10th. Marshall had a sign of life in the bottom of the 10th, getting the frame started with a Jackson Halter solo shot, but that would be all she wrote as Marshall lost the match 8-5 and the conference series 2-1.
Notable players in the series that wore Kelly green were Maika Niu, who had two doubles and a two-run homer. Elijah Vogelsong led the Herd with four hits, accumulating three RBIs on the weekend, two of which came off one swing of the bat over the wall in left field. Lastly, Tyler Kamerer helped the Herd with a pair of two-baggers.
WVU is coming off back-to-back three-game series sweeps against Houston and Utah, as well as a couple one-off wins versus Pitt and Ohio State. The Mountaineers are currently ranked 24th in the nation, one spot behind Southern Miss University, who Marshall defeated 2-1 in a three-game series on the opening weekend of April.
The two West Virginia squads battled in Morgantown on March 25, with WVU controlling the contest the entire way en route to a victory against the Herd. The Marshall bats could never get going, only accumulating four hits and three walks while leaving eight men on base. The Mountaineers earned a strong by committee victory on the mound, putting a total of eight men on the bump and all of them seizing control of the game.
Marshall’s pitching staff had the opposite effect, as senior Fenix DiGiacomo started the game and only lasted two and two-thirds innings, giving up six earned runs in the process. The Marshall bullpen was able to limit the damage the rest of the way, giving way to a 7-0 WVU win.
West Virginia notables were Chase Swain and Skylar King with two RBIs apiece, one of those RBIs coming from a Swain solo home run, the only homer of the night.
You can tune in to Tuesday’s contest on-air at 88.1 WMUL-FM or online at marshall.edu/wmul. FM88 Sports’ Nate Courtney and Connor Brown will be on the call with pregame beginning at 5:45 p.m. and first pitch at 6 p.m., or you can tune in to our FM 88 Sports account on X (formerly Twitter) where Ben Anderson will be live tweeting the contest.