MORGANTOWN – It was probably easier for West Virginia University’s baseball coaches to find left-handed pitcher Maxx Yehl himself than to find the city in southwestern New York in which he lived.

While Yehl himself in real life is super-sized like a Circle K Polar Pop Jug of soda that comes in a 100-ounce cup, Portville, N.Y, sits on the New York side of the border separating it from Pennsylvania, a dot on the map no bigger than Yehl’s fastball appears to a hitter as it spins toward the plate.

The WVU lefthander who on Tuesday was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, the third such honor a WVU pitcher has earned, stands 6-6 and weighs in at 235 pounds.

He’s always been a big kid who built a big reputation, making the varsity baseball team in Portville in the eighth grade at 13 years old, hitting a high school home run even before he hit high school.

It’s a story worth telling as he and Mountaineers prepare to begin play on Thursday in the Big 12 Championships against either the favored TCU or Kansas State.

A junior, he has grown into his potential, despite having had to go through the COVID era as a prosect and then after having missed last season due to Tommy John surgery.

All eyes will be on him when he goes to the mound, just as it’s been since he was that eighth grader and as it will be from here on out in his baseball career, having gone 7-2 this season with a miniscule 2.10 earned-run average while striking out 88 with 20 walks in 73 innings of work.

His coach, Steve Sabins, sees him as a bigger than life figure.

“The truth is that guy should pitch for another 15 years. He’s that good. He’s an exceptional talent,” Sabins said.

A couple of weeks back there was some concern about him. He was being watched carefully after the Tommy John surgery and something was wrong early in the game, not really pain but discomfort, which affected his velocity. He missed his next start but if anything he came back better than ever.

“That break was probably a godsend for him,” Sabins said last week. “Over the course of two weeks there, kind of on the back end of the season, middle of the season, he threw two innings. And then he threw five innings. After that, he was able to throw that complete game.

“I think he’s just in a really good headspace and healthy and feeling really good. We’re treating Maxx like a big leaguer because he is a big leaguer. We’re scheduling that guy massages each week, and he’s got red light therapy, and he’s really diving in, taking care of himself. He’s really finding ways to take care of his body and prepare like a big leaguer would.”

What Sabins said about Yehl was simply what people have been thinking about him during his days in Portville. An article carried online by TAP into Greater Olean went back to a day in 2020 when he and his father, Chris, sat in their car and thought about the college offers that were starting to pour in.

They were the Prep Baseball Report New York State Games and the then sophomore had just pitched to six batters committed to Division 1 players and set them down with no runs, no hits.

“That’s when I realized I might just be good at baseball in general,” Yehl said. “Not just in Portville.”

West Virginia got into the recruitment and while COVID kept him from making an on-campus visit, he fell in love with being a Mountaineer.

“They look at you as a normal human being,” Yehl said. “It’s family from the beginning.”

It wasn’t until 2001 that Yehl and his mother drove from an event in Georgia to visit the campus.

“It put me in awe,” he told the local news organization then. “The environment. The mountains. This is where I want to be for the next three to four years.”

West Virginia kept its commitment to him and he has kept his to the school. Now they will try to turn it into a Big 12 Tournament championship and a run in the NCAA Tournament.

Joining Yehl on the All-Big 12 first team were pitchers Chansen Cole and Ian Korn and catcher Gavin Kelly while centerfielder Paul Schoenfeld was on the second team.