Major has perfect baseball homecoming, downing Penn State
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA – You could have not scripted a better homecoming for Central Mountain High School grad Aidan Major. Now a freshman pitcher at West Virginia University, Major returned to central Pennsylvania Tuesday night and was part of a Mountaineer 8-4 win over the home-team Penn State Nittany Lions.
Major has seen action in relief so far this season for the 21-10 Mountaineers and was summoned in the third inning and was perfect in his performance. With PSU threatening with one out, he recorded a foul out and a flyout to end the threat. He took the mound again in the fourth and went strike out, flyout, flyout for a perfect five batters up – five- batters down. That showing earned Major his first collegiate win. It took just 13 pitches to retire the five batters, 10 of them fastballs, most topping out at 94 mph.
Afterwards Major told The Record the whole trip to his home area was “unbelievable.” He said it was a thrill to come to State College, close to home, and pitch at a school he followed in sports growing up. There was a large hometown following behind the WVU dugout and Major thanked the family and friends in attendance, noting he has “a very, very large support system.”
Major said his performance was his best so far this season. He has been working back to past form, coming off knee surgery last fall. He said perhaps that surgery “might have been a blessing” as it gave him the opportunity to watch program veterans in their off-season work as he could not immediately compete. He said his performance against Penn State was as close as he has been to where he was last spring and summer.
Asked if he was nervous preparing to enter the game Tuesday night, he said he was “a little nervous” warming up in the bullpen but had followed his normal game-day routine and once he hit the mound, “I calmed down and focused on throwing strikes and getting outs.”
He expressed the hope his strong showing will earn him more opportunities, including making the travel team for a WVU squad ranked #24 in the country. He talked about the learning curve for a college freshman and said “things are going really well,” especially given the surgery he had to deal with. He said he will “continue to watch and learn and to make me a better teammate and player down the road.”
Major said he will be pursuing a degree in sports management with a minor in business.
Major led Central Mountain into the PIAA semifinal round last spring, compiling an 8-1 record and an ERA of 0.87. He did even better Tuesday night at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park in University Park, with many fans and friends on-hand to cheer him on.
