First and Ben

 By Ben Anderson      Marshall Women’s Basketball ended the historic 2025-26 season by claiming its first postseason tournament championship in program history, defeating Illinois State 66-41 to win the Women’s National Invitation Tournament at the Cam Henderson Center.       The Thundering Herd finished the season with the most wins in a single season (28), surpassing the record of (26) set by the 2023-24 Sun Belt Conference Championship and NCAA Tournament squad led by now Tennessee Women’s Basketball head coach Kim Caldwell.       With the WNIT Championship game marking my final basketball broadcast for the Cutting Edge Sports Radio Network, I want to look back at the last four years of the Thundering Herd women’s basketball program.       I arrived on the campus of Marshall University in the fall of 2022. I did not know anything about the women’s basketball program as I had only followed the men’s team u...

 By Ben Anderson           The dominance of Marshall Softball at Dot Hicks Field this season continued on Tuesday afternoon, shutting out the Pitt Panthers of the ACC 8-0 in six innings.      The Thundering Herd entered the contest receiving votes in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 poll. Marshall was also ranked 25 in the NCAA RPI Rankings.       Maddie Veal pitched her third complete game shutout of the season, limiting the Panthers to a single infield hit in the contest.      Marshall has now won 85 wins in three seasons under Morgan Zerkle.       The bats were just as electric for the Thundering Herd, as it poured out 11 hits. Marshall got the scoring started in the second inning as Haleigh Adkins sent a double to right field to score Paige Simpson. The Herd tacked on another run in the third to take a 2-0 lead after the first three innings. Adkins is a perfect 6-for-6 in the Her...

 By Ben Anderson      The arrival of spring brought the return of Marshall Track & Field for the 2026 outdoor season, aiming to build on the success from the indoor campaign.       The Thundering Herd have continued to carry on that success behind the trio of men’s long jumpers – OT Omot, Cam Hamby, and TreShaun Smith – who have each taken turns at cracking the programs’ outdoor long jump record. Director of Track & Field Keith Roberts said that the trio has developed into leaders of the program.      “What it really boils down to is their work ethic, their communication with me, their communication with each other, their competitive spirit,” Roberts said in an interview with First and Ben. “They’re crazy competitors. They just want to be great at everything they do. They won’t back down from anybody. So, it’s been fun to see that, and it spread out through the team.”      The women’s long-distance group retur...

By Ben Anderson      In the midst of a five-game skid, Marshall baseball fell to the Ohio Bobcats 5-3 Wednesday night at Jack Cook Field, extending its losing streak to six games.       After struggling on the mound over the weekend against Coastal Carolina, the Herds’ pitching staff continued to be lackluster, walking seven Bobcats batter while also hitting two.       Blaine Albright started on the bump for the Thundering Herd, aiming to recover after allowing three runs in 2.1 innings against West Virginia. He delivered a much better performance against Ohio, recording three strikeouts, while allowing only one hit, and four walks in three innings.      The Bobcats broke through in the top of the fourth when Tyler Stack hit a sacrifice fly to score Dylan Shepherd. That run sparked the Bobcat’s offense, and in the fifth inning, left fielder Cameron Boyd launched leadoff home run 408 feet to center field with an exit v...

 By Ben Anderson      In a game that the Marshall Thundering Herd Baseball team was ready to use for momentum heading into a crucial series against Coastal Carolina went awry on a chilly Tuesday night, as the Herd fell to No. 17 West Virginia Mountaineers 3-0 at Jack Cook Field.      The Mountaineers’ bats sprang to action early against Herd starter Blain Albright, scoring three runs across the first three innings. Senior Brock Wills drove in the first run with an RBI groundout in the opening inning, followed by run-scoring singles from sophomore Gavin Kelly and graduate student Brodie Kresser in the second and third innings.      After Albright allowed three runs on five in 2.1 innings pitched, the Thundering Herd held the Mountaineers to just two more hits and scoreless for the remainder of the contest behind the duo of Luke Proehl and Alex Caudill from the bullpen.      WVU’s pitching staff was lights out in the contest...

 By Ben Anderson      Tonight, Marshall Baseball has the chance to avenge its game three loss against the Georgia Southern Eagles in a monstrous way, as it welcomes in-state rival, West Virginia Mountaineers to Jack Cook Field.       Marshall enters the contest 13-9 (5-1 SBC) after winning two of three games in Statesboro Georgia to Georgia Southern. The Herd, in game three, dropped its first SBC game of the season 18-12. West Virginia enters 16-4 (5-1 Big 12) following a home sweep against the BYU Cougars in its Big 12 home opener.        Both teams entered 2026 with high hopes following successful campaigns a year ago. The Thundering Herd qualified for the Sun Belt Conference for the first time ever and its first conference tournament since the 2019 season when it was a member of Conference-USA. The Mountaineers, set a new program record for wins going 44-16, winning the Big 12 regular season championship and advancing t...