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Thanks to @Wvboonedoc, @timadkinswvu86, @patricksouthern and @JPetey41 for the photographs of West Virginia baseball’s first NCAA regional appearance since 1996, which just so happened to be a 9-1 win against Maryland.

Now, about that game …

By the time the regular season and conference tournaments were completed, Wake Forest, the host for the Winston-Salem regional, led the nation in home runs per game and was one off the national lead for total home runs. The Demon Deacons escorted 96 baseballs from the premises in 57 games.

Two reasons:

1. They have some hitters.
2. They also played 28 games at home, and their ballpark is similar to a silo: 310 feet down the line in left field and 300 feet down the line in right, 370 feet to left-center, 367 feet to right-center and 400 feet to straightaway center.

You’re pulling the ball there, but, if you’ve ever lifted a weight, you can probably keep an eye on the outside portion of the plate and barrel one up and push it over the wall on the opposite end. Wake Forest hit 52 home runs in 28 home games.

WVU, on the other hand, hit 46 home runs in 58 regular-season and Big 12 tournament games. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Maybe it was the dimensions. Whatever the case, the Mountaineers smacked six over the fence Friday — and rose from No. 106 out of 300 teams in home runs to No. 74 — and did damage while allowing very little to ease past the Terrapins.

Buoyed by two homers each from Kyle Davis and Jimmy Galusky along with an almost innate ability to escape trouble, West Virginia knocked off Maryland 9-1 at David F. Couch Ballpark in front of a boisterous crowd in the opener for both schools at the Winston-Salem Regional.

The Mountaineers improve to 35-24 with the victory while also avenging a loss to Maryland back in April. The Terrapins dropped to 37-22.

It was West Virginia’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1996, when the Mountaineers won their first two games before losing to Clemson and Tennessee.

“It’s pretty cool,” West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey said. “It seems like every time we play we are either going to set or break records for ourselves. Every game we win, we get a little bit closer to our goal.”

West Virginia hit six home runs in the contest, matching a season-best. The Mountaineers also slugged six homers at defending national champion Coastal Carolina in February.

Davis got the scoring started in the bottom of the second with a two-run blast off Maryland starter Brian Shaffer, and Galusky followed with a solo shot one out later to hand the Mountaineers a three-run advantage.

Maryland struck back in the top of the third when Zach Jancarski drove in Madison Nickens with an RBI single. WVU starter Alek Manoah, who also induced double plays in the first two frames, was able to avoid further damage as he stranded the bases loaded.

In the following inning, the Terps loaded the bases with one out on a hit batter and two singles. West Virginia summoned BJ Myers from the bullpen and the righty escaped without allowing a run.

The Terps left 10 runners on base in the contest.

“That was the difference in the game,” Mazey said. “We put them on base, gave them some free bases and then turned some double plays.”

Davis drives the ball all around the yard and has 10 home runs now to match Jackson Cramer for the team lead, so hitting two isn’t unexpected. Galusky was ice cold late in the schedule and then heated up in Oklahoma City, but in 181 at-bats this season before Friday, he had two home runs.

Adrenaline? Dimensions? Does it even matter? I suppose it’s like golf: It’s not how. It’s how many. But look at these:

WVU and Wake Forest play at 7 p.m. tonight. The hosts beat UMBC 11-3 Friday and didn’t homer once. After manager Randy Mazey started Manoah, who started the regular-season game against the Terrapins, and then went to Myers, heretofore the No. 1 starter, we have to assume freshman Isaiah Kearns gets the ball today.

Kearns is, to some fanfare, a fly ball pitcher. He got Baylor to fly out 12 times into the wind in his gem last week.

After his last game against Pitt he told Coach Matlock that he, Isaiah, can pitch up and down. That’s not anything — that’s west coast pitching up in the zone. We don’t do much of that. Kearns took that upon himself to command the zone up and down instead of side to side.

What did that do to Baylor? It’s hard to lay off those high fastballs, and the Bears took the bait again and again.

Baylor Head Coach Steve Rodriguez On why they couldn’t get their offense going…

“I think (Isaiah) Kearns did a really good job getting ahead of hitters. He pitched in the zone where the wind was blowing in. I thought he did a pretty good job of elevating his fastball and our guys were swinging at it. We were trying to make some adjustments later, but I just kept telling our guys – we got to make sure we keep pushing the ball down in our zone; offensively, to make sure we get some line drives. We just weren’t able to make that adjustment. He did a good job of bearing some sliders and elevating a fastball right about your waist and have our guys swing. I thought we laid some pretty good swings on some baseballs, but just wasn’t able to get line drives and base hits when we needed to.”

Kearns allowed six home runs in 43 1/3 innings this season, the second-highest total on the team, trailing only reliever Jackson Sigman, who allowed eight in 53 2/3 innings and who did not pitch yesterday.

You can find instructions for how to watch, listen to and track tonight’s game at the bottom of the schedule here.