The first of 14 remaining regular season contests for West Virginia comes Friday against Cincinnati in what marks the start of a critical three-game series at UC Baseball Stadium.
The Mountaineers (27-10) will attempt to avoid consecutive losses, something the team has endured only once before this season, that coming back in the first week of March.
While WVU has taken plenty of pride in its ability to stay present and move forward from disappointing results in Steve Sabins’ second season as head coach, that quest becomes at least slightly more challenging following Tuesday’s 23-1 seven-inning home loss to Pittsburgh in the lone meeting between the nearby rivals this season.
“When adverse things happen and struggles show up, how you respond to those is character,” Sabins said. “They always have a choice. When things go good, it’s really easy to be a good teammate. When things don’t go good, your character is revealed. Character is not revealed when you win 22-1. It’s pretty easy to be a good dude and a good teammate. Character is revealed when things don’t go your way.
“This team has been great all year. They have high character, they really care and work hard, but some of these games are part of the game statistically if you play enough ball games.”
After winning the last two of a three-game set last weekend against Houston, West Virginia fell flat against the Panthers, issuing 15 walks, surrendering five home runs and managing its lowest hit total (2) in any game this season.
Sabins elected to start left-handed pitcher Bryson Thacker, while utilizing David Hagen, the team’s normal midweek starting pitcher, in a relief role.
By the time the right-handed Hagen took to the mound in the second inning, Pitt led 5-0, and that advantage grew to an insurmountable 16 runs at the end of three, at which point WVU had used four pitchers.
“It got out of hand so fast, there’s only so many arms and so many innings that you can cover,” Sabins said. “It wasn’t as hard to manage, because it turns into, you can’t out-manage that amount of home runs and walks. There’s nothing that the coaches can do at that point. It becomes someone has to get outs and perform and even if they’re not right now, you’re basically hoping somebody turns the page and figures it out. That’s what college baseball is — young guys and you’re looking for growth moments and guys to make that jump and turn that page.”
The Mountaineers will next turn to Ian Korn as their starting pitcher Friday against the Bearcats.
Korn’s 13 appearances are the third most among WVU pitchers, while his 36.1 innings are more than all but three teammates. However, the opener at UC will mark his first start as a Mountaineer.
Korn was a standout at Seton Hill before his time in Morgantown and garnered Division II Pitcher of the Year honors in his fourth and final season with the Griffins.
Since allowing five runs over four innings in his first appearance this season against Georgia Southern, Korn has yielded eight runs in 32.1 innings since. Across the last month, the right-hander has made seven appearance spanning 18.1 innings, while limiting opponents to three runs on 12 hits with 17 strikeouts and three walks.
For the season, Korn is 3-0 with a 3.22 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 34 strikeouts against seven base-on-balls.
“He’s in such a great spot. He’s just pitched so much in his career,” Sabins said. “He has hundreds of innings. He’s been a starter, gone long into games. He’s healthy, motivated, good attitude.
“He’s like that perfect definition of a guy that showed up here and got better. He developed some pitches. He got a better slider. His velocity has increased, so you pair that with a guy that’s been starting his whole college career and can command the ball and that’s kind of where we’re at right now. We’re definitely riding high with Korn and he’s been great. It’s about guys getting better and he’s one of those guys that’s made a jump.”
Korn is attempting to fill a void in the rotation created by the absence of Maxx Yehl, a left-hander with a 5-1 record and 2.41 ERA who is the team leader in innings pitched (52.1) and strikeouts (62).
Yehl was pulled during the third inning of last Saturday’s game against Houston with his velocity noticeably down. For a pitcher coming off Tommy John surgery who missed all of the 2025 season, time off to enhance recovery is a necessity, according to Sabins.
“Yehl is not going to start this weekend. He needs to have a week off from throwing,” Sabins said.
As a result, right-handed pitcher Dawson Montesa has been moved from his normal Friday starting slot to Saturday, while fellow right-hander Chansen Cole gets the nod Sunday, as has been the case each of the last four weeks.
The Mountaineers enter the weekend in sole possession of second place in the Big 12 Conference with a 12-6 league mark, and four games ahead of Cincinnati (27-16, 8-10). The Bearcats are in a two-way tie for 10th place, but only two games back of fifth place TCU.
As a result of its success against a challenging non-conference schedule, UC’s RPI is 24, leaving it several spots ahead of West Virginia, which is at 28.
“The message is always to stick together,” Sabins said. “It’s always been about these 40 players competing and getting better, working hard, kicking ass and doing the right stuff.”