The Major League Baseball Draft Lottery is complete, and JJ Wetherholt was the 7th pick of the 1st round by the St. Louis Cardinals.

The WVU second baseman will enter the 2024 college baseball season as a projected Top 5 pick by almost every baseball website. He rocketed up MLB Draft boards and mock drafts this spring after hitting for a .449 batting average, and being named Big 12 Player of the Year.

Unbelievable hitter. [He] won the batting title last year. Hit almost .450. Power showed up. Stole a bunch of bases. He can really, really hit. I think he’s going to go out in the spring and show that he can play shortstop,” said Mayo. “He’s played mostly second base before. I don’t know if this might be splitting hairs over some of the other guys at the top of the college list, but I think that his ability to show he can handle a premium position is what kind of gave him the very slight edge over the (next) guy.”

Wetherholt put together one of the best offensive seasons in WVU baseball history. He was a unanimous first-team All-American, NCBWA District 2 Player of the Year, and a finalist or semifinalist for a slew of national awards. At the plate, the Mars, Pennsylvania, native clubbed 16 home runs, 24 doubles and two triples, becoming the first player since 2002 with 40 extra-base hits and 36 stolen bases.

Our program is rich in history and success!! Speaking of success, what a great 2019 season we had, with over 120 tourney finishes in the semi finals or deeper! A special shout out to the BV 12s RED for finishing the season with a 68 – 3 record and winning the Championship of the 104 team COOPERSTOWN DREAMS PARK TOURNAMENT!! This was BV’s 12th Cooperstown Dreams Park Championship – a National Record that quite frankly no other program is even close!! This 12U team finished the season on a 44 game winning streak!! Another huge shoutout to BV 13s RED for finishing the season with a 57-3 record, and winning the 44 team Triple Crown Sports National Championship in Myrtle Beach, SC. The 13s RED finished the season winning their last 51 games!! One more shoutout to a team that finished their season on a special stage and did something special, BV 11s RED went to Cooperstown and played in a Dreams Park 12U week long event – they not only competed with the older kids, they put fear in them, finishing with a 6-2 record and really making some news at Dreams Park!! This past season brought many great baseball moments and memories. Our players excelled on the field at a high level, but it all starts with our wonderful winter training program and how hard our coaching staff worked with our players. I know the coaches are locked and ready to go again this winter to provide even a better off season training program to better the skills of our players and prepare them for a great 2020 season!!

As players in our program excel at the younger ages, we have dominated on the older “Showcase Tournaments” that a lot of our teams in the 14U – 18U ages compete in. These high school age players have played on many College fields in front of college scouts – Coaches Cutshall and Nery are very much on top of this part of the program. Having two coaches that have been through the grind of the recruiting process is very valuable to these future college baseball players!! These coaches have also dealt with getting drafted to the big leagues, and believe it that some of these young players will have the opportunity to be drafted out of high school.

The BV BASEBALL 2019 year was also wonderful off the field. We have had several current and BV Alum players accepting offers to play baseball in college. Some of these include: Gavin MIller (Auburn University), Chase Kriebel (Florida Gulf Coast), Nick Partsch (Sienna University), Drew Lafferty (Kentucky), Luke Lambert (Ohio U.), Anthony Sinicropi (Kent State), JJ Wetherholt (West Virginia University), Cameron Weston (Michigan University), WIll Ray (Wake Forest), Matthew Shepard (Mercyhurst), Luke Jackson (Mercyhurst), and Daylyn Brickner (Youngstown State University) – We are very proud of these young men, and we have many more that will be signing to further their education and baseball careers in the very near future.

You want more? How about the 2019 MLB DRAFT – where BV BASEBALL had three players drafted!!

JJ Bleday: Led the country in Homeruns as a starting outfielder for the College World Series Champion Vanderbilt University!! JJ was also a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award (given to the top player in all of college baseball) — JJ was drafted with the 4th pick in round 1 of the MLB draft by the Miami Marlins!!

Seth Gray: Drafted in the 4h round by the Minnesota Twins – Seth played his college baseball at Wright State University!!

Robert Klinchock: Was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 35th round!!

ONE MORE SHOUTOUT: Brendan McKay – Long time BV player – and current Tampa Bay Ray two way player – has been called up from the minors and is now being used as a regular starting pitcher for the Rays (this only after 2 years in the minors) – At the time of this email, BK is currently 2-1 on the mound for the Rays, as they are competing for a wildcard spot in the American League. Last Friday, Brendan got another win pitching at historic Fenway Park in Boston!!

Thanks,

Brian

Thursday night the BV 12s RED won the program’s 12th Cooperstown Championship by beating the Michigan Gorillas by a score of 8-0!! The whole week was a total show by our guys – on and off the field. In baseball village, I watched my players bond more than we already have this season – a brotherhood that will always be a special part of this team – They were a singing and dancing group – they also traded pins, and formed friendships with other players from all over the country – our most special group of friends was from one of the Hawaii teams, who gave each player a special beaded necklace, mine is hanging on our trophy and will be a great memory for me when I look at it!! On the field we DOMINATED teams. On our way to this Championship we broke the Cooperstown Dreams Park All Time Team Home Run Record for a week by hitting an amazing 89 Home Runs (the old record was 82) – For the playoffs we went 5-0 scoring an impressive 78 runs and allowing only 8 runs. We have many individual performances to talk about, but I will save those for the banquet so you can put a story to a face!! It was the first time my wife and daughter came to Cooperstown and they left with many memories that we talked about on the way home. This park has been a significant part of our program, and quite frankly, my life as a travel baseball director. They treat our program up there as royalty, it is a historical place, and BV is a big part of the history. This team added to that history. We played the game as a unit and competed hard every step of the way. As a coach of these young men I couldn’t be more proud of their accomplishment. We took Cooperstown by storm, made it our home for a week, took memories that these players will have for themselves for the rest of their lives!! We left Cooperstown as Champions and more importantly a band of brothers!!

Thanks,

Brian

I wanted to send you all an email about a special accomplishment about one of our teams, BV 13s RED!! Today they won the Triple Crown Sports Summer National Championship in Myrtle Beach, SC!! They won this 44 team National Championship finishing with a week record 7-0. In the 7 games we played six different teams, run ruling all six teams!!

Equally as impressive is what this team did on a whole this season, this game today marks their 51st straight win!! They finish the season with a 57 – 3 mark!! Along the way they won a World Series qualifier for Perfect Game, they won a USSSA Super NIT bid to Disney, and of course the National Championship in Myrtle!!

This team sticks together no matter the circumstance, when the game reaches its most trying times they do not point a finger at anyone, they have discovered the TRUE meaning of TEAM!! I have coached this group for the past two seasons – in that two year run we finish with 122 wins and 8 losses!! We have won and lost together in a way that makes a coach proud.

Sometimes, in our program when a team accomplishes something great, it is important to stop and enjoy your accomplishment. This team has been on an amazing run – A National Championship Run – I am so proud of this group and the way the play the game!! Congratulations to BV 13s RED!!

Thanks,

Brian