Less than 24 hours after he dominated Kansas’ lineup in his first start against a Big 12 Conference opponent, freshman Robby Porco earned the first conference weekly accolade of his young career on Monday.

Porco was in command of all three of his pitches, racking up a career-high 12 strikeouts in six innings against the Jayhawks. His start marked just the second of his career.

Following his 12-punchout performance, Porco was named the Big 12’s co-Pitcher of the Week, sharing the honor with Kansas State’s Tyson Neighbors.

Porco struck out nearly half of the batters he faced, and held Kansas’ lineup to just a .125 batting average while he was on the mound.

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The Warrington, Pennsylvania native became the first freshman pitcher at WVU to record at least 12 strikeouts since Michale Grove did so against Maryland on May 10, 2016. Grove earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Week honors for that performance.

According to West Virginia, Porco becomes the first Mountaineer freshman pitcher to earn Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors since the program joined the conference in 2013. This marks the 17th time a WVU hurler has been named the conference’s Pitcher of the Week.

Blaine Traxel was named the Big 12’s top pitcher in the weekly honors following his Feb. 27 start against Arizona.

Porco also became the first WVU pitcher to record at least 12 strikeouts in one game since Jacob Watters did so last season. He is the first to do so in just six innings on the mound since Alek Manoah registered 13 punchouts against Kennesaw State in 2019.