Steve Sabins wants West Virginia’s baseball team to oppose regional rivals as often as possible.
So much so that the Mountaineers play Penn State at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday from Meritus Park in Hagerstown, Md.
“We’ll be able to connect with a little bit of a different fan base in a different area. It’s in Maryland, which is pretty unique, right? A team from Pennsylvania and a team from West Virginia playing in Maryland,” Sabins said. “But I love it from a recruiting perspective. Kids in that area and a different fan base can go watch us play. That’s really cool.”
The contest is part of what was an originally agreed upon three-game series this season between the 15th-ranked Mountaineers and Nittany Lions.
The first of those games was scheduled for March 17 in Morgantown, but was canceled. Thus, Wednesday is the first meeting this season between the two teams, and they’re scheduled to clash again April 29 in State College.
“I want to play as many good teams and regional opponents as humanly possible,” Sabins said. “In an ideal world, we’d play Pitt three times, Penn State three times, we’d play Marshall, Ohio State, Maryland. I want all those teams. Not all those teams agree with me in playing that unfortunately.
“The Penn State series all started because we were unable to schedule three games with Pitt this year, unfortunately. So, Penn State said, we’d love to play you three times and we think it would be a great thing.”
WVU (24-8) enters fresh off a series victory at Texas Tech after winning Sunday’s rubber match, 10-2.
The Mountaineers will be home for three games over the weekend against Houston, but first look to make the most of their experience at Meritus Park, which opened in 2024 and serves as home to the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars of The Atlantic League — the same league the Charleston Dirty Birds belong to.
“This park in Hagerstown, I’ve never been there and don’t know a ton about it, but I was told it was an $80 million downtown renovation project where they wanted to bring life to this downtown area and this was going to be the center hub for it,” Sabins said. “They pitched us and had a great leadership team and management team, and ended up paying for buses and essentially paid for both teams to be there and put on this event. I’ve been told that it’s been sold-out for a long time. A really cool event for us and we save some hours on the bus.”
David Hagen has been an effective midweek starter for the Mountaineers and figures to be in line for more work against PSU. A right-handed sophomore, Hagen has a 2-0 record and 1.88 ERA with 13 strikeouts and eight walks over 14.1 innings.
He has started in five of eight appearances and the Mountaineers are 7-1 when Hagen pitches, including six straight victories.
Since combining for one run over two losses to Central Florida, the Mountaineers have scored 35 runs in four games, including 34 in three victories.
Brodie Kresser, primarily a second baseman, has missed five straight games due to injury, causing Sabins to juggle his lineup, a move that has mostly yielded positive results.
“Brodie’s had a lower back. It started with upper back tightness,” Sabins said. “It’s kind of moved down to lower back and then it kind of got into his butt cheek a little bit. He’s OK. He’s just not able to swing with max velocity, so his rotational speed is down, so it’s affecting his swing a little bit.
“If we were to throw him in there and put him on defense, he would compete. But he’s not running the best he has. He doesn’t feel great, so we’re trying to limit this from going in the tank a little bit the last five weeks of the season. We’re just trying to rip the bandaid off and get him healthy. He’s rehabbing. He has a chiropractic appointment today, where he will spend some time just trying to take care of himself. It’s forced us to play some different guys.”
Penn State (10-23) has struggled for much of the season and enters after dropping the last two of a three-game set at Ohio State, bringing the Nittany Lions’ mark to 4-11 within Big Ten Conference play.
Michael Anderson is the team’s top hitter and has 15 home runs and 40 RBI to go with a .380 batting average. The 15 homers are only seven fewer than WVU has as a team.
But whereas the Mountaineers have gotten strong pitching for much of this season and are holding opponents to less than 4.5 runs on average, the Nittany Lions have been scored on at will. Penn State has given up 289 runs (more than twice the amount WVU has allowed) for nearly 8.8 per game.
“It’s the best starting pitcher we’ve had in my 11 years at West Virginia as far as the consistency,” Sabins said. “That’s not really for question. The fact that we’re doing against the most offensive league in the country says a lot.”