The 2025 season has been a roller coaster of emotion for the Marshall Thundering Herd baseball team.
The Herd opened its season losing six of its first seven games before racking up wins in 10 of their next 11.
However, on March 22, a 5-4 loss to James Madison ignited a five-game losing streak, including a 7-0 shutout loss to in-state foe and nationally ranked West Virginia in Granville.
Since a 4-3 loss to then-No. 17 Troy on March 29, Marshall has won 12 of its last 19 games, including its last six, with the latest coming on Wednesday. The Herd knocked off the Mountaineers, 7-6, on a walk-off error by WVU in the bottom of the ninth.
The win avenges two prior losses to WVU this season and came in front of an announced crowd of 9,649 at GoMart Ballpark in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä.
Marshall still has conference series remaining against Old Dominion, Georgia State and Georgia Southern and a nonconference game against Virginia Tech.
Herd coach Greg Beals is thrilled about the win, but he knows there are still games to be played if Marshall wants to control its own destiny.
“Our destiny is in front of us,†Beals said following the one-run win on Wednesday. “We know that we control our own destiny in our conference. We’re playing good baseball right now. It’s the momentum.
“There’s not a whole lot a coach [has] to do. My toughest job was after the Coastal Carolina weekend, where we got knocked on our heels by a really good ball club on the road.â€
In that April 17-19 series vs. the Chanticleers, Marshall lost all three games by a combined 28 runs.
“Since then, we’ve responded and [have] won six straight after that. My job came [by] keeping [the] group together and our energy and fight [up] after that tough weekend.â€
Marshall’s last six victories have come by an average of seven runs, including a 32-15 thriller on the road at Morehead State on April 23.
The Herd’s pitching and defense has been strong during this latest stretch as four of the six games have come when they’ve held teams to two or fewer runs, with two being shutouts.
Beals hasn’t seen a whole lot of tweaks or gimmicks since the Coastal series loss, but he has seen the resiliency of his team emerge lately.
“We’re pitching and playing good defense and that needs to be a constant,†Beals said. “Good baseball teams do that. They pitched the ball really well [tonight]. It’s unfortunate that as good [of] a game as it was [tonight], it ends on an error. It’s unfortunate. We’ll certainly take it, but that’s what good baseball teams do. Then, you have to get hits. You have to get the big hits when you need it.â€
The sense of confidence can be felt across the clubhouse from top to bottom, including freshman Jackson Golden.
Golden was effective in his four plate appearances on Wednesday, as he finished 2 for 4, drove home four runners and smacked a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth inning.
“We’re rolling on the confidence,†Golden said. “We had a win streak earlier in the season. We have a bunch of bullpen guys left, [and] we can keep [it] going. We’re going to have fun this weekend against [Old Dominion].â€
The win over No. 16 WVU on Wednesday marked Marshall’s fourth victory against an opponent this season that is currently ranked. The others were against Troy and Southern Miss (twice).
The last came against the Golden Eagles on April 5 in Huntington, 6-0.
The lyrics to the Steve Miller Band hit “Take the Money and Run†might have had a different twist to Golden and the Herd on Wednesday, with the title of the song being changed to “Take the Wins and Run.â€
“This is huge,†Golden said. “To beat a ranked team this late in the season just propels us in conference play. It makes us even more confident.â€
Marshall and WVU have now split the last four games. The other Herd victory during that stretch over the Mountaineers came last season in Huntington, 3-2, in 11 innings.
