The college baseball season is underway, and the opening weekend saw a number of former area high school standouts contribute on the field at the Division I level.

West Virginia is off to a 3-1 start after a weekend in Florida at the Big East-Big Ten Challenge.

Former Madonna standout Max Nogay made his collegiate, and catching debut. He started the first three games of the weekend. In Friday's opener versus Northwestern, Nogay doubled in his first college at-bat. His work behind the plate earned the praise from head coach Greg VanZant, who called his defensive play, the "story of the day."  The redshirt freshman went 2-10 at the plate against Northwestern, Penn State and Iowa.

In the opener Friday, Nogay caught Wheeling Park graduate Corey Walter, who started the game on the mound. The sophomore righty went 4 2/3 innings, allowing 9 hits, 2 earned runs, and he struck out one. He left with the lead, but did not earn the victory after not completing the necessary five innings.

Sunday, freshman Justin Fox from Magnolia debuted, starting at second base for the Mountaineers in their 4-3 win over Iowa.

Fox ended up getting his first hit in the day's second game, a 14-3 loss to Michigan.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, former St. Clairsville standout Dan Slavik made his season debut out of the bullpen for Kent State. The sophomore reliever pitched a perfect ninth inning in a win over Winthrop, striking out one batter. Kent State went 2-1 on the weekend, including a win over nationally-ranked Georgia Tech Friday.

Youngstown State is 0-3, but former Steubenville Big Red star Jeremy Banks did his part to help on the offensive end.  The senior first baseman is off to a hot start, going 8-14 at the plate with 4 doubles  and 3 RBI in games against Canisius, NC State and Monmouth in Cary, North Carolina.