MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — That West Virginia knew it was one of 16 regional hosts in the upcoming NCAA Tournament ahead of Monday’s selection show took some of suspense away from a watch party at The Goat Country Roads Pub.
But it hardly lessened the excitement among those associated with the Mountaineers.
Seeded No. 16 nationally, West Virginia discovered it is a host by the finest of margins. The Mountaineers will welcome Binghamton to Kendrick Family Ballpark for a 5 p.m. matchup Friday that will air on ESPN+. The four-team Morgantown regional also includes Wake Forest at No. 2 and Kentucky at No. 3. The Demon Deacons and Wildcats clash in the first game of the regional at noon Friday.
“We did this at this location last year, so to see it grow, the excitement from our players and to be able to go to four consecutive regionals is certainly special,” Mountaineer coach Steve Sabins said. “Mix in a hosting situation for the community and the state, there’s nothing better. The people of this state are passionate about our program and passionate about WVU, so to be able to bring an event like this here is meaningful to me.
“I’m just really proud of the staff, the players, my family and everybody that’s going to get to experience high-level college baseball. There will be great opponents. The atmosphere in Morgantown is really hard to beat. I know tickets will be extremely hard to come by and we will pack as many people in that place as the Fire Marshal allows.”
The field of 64 is locked in. 🔒⚾️
📲 https://t.co/ZUEUkZyAP0
➡️ https://t.co/NdxRoTqbEk
🎟️ https://t.co/i73Q25MuVk#RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/ZYMMSOFDEl— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) May 25, 2026
It marks the third time in program history the Mountaineers will host a NCAA Regional, including the first since 2019 and second in 71 years.
While WVU won the Tucson Regional at Arizona in 2024 as well as the Clemson Regional last year to advance to the Super Regional round in consecutive seasons, staying home is far more preferred.
The Mountaineers (39-14) are 16-6 at home this season.
“It’s important for Joey Cuomo, our director of operations,” Sabins said. “That guy is a full-time travel agent, so being able to hang out and worry more about meals and things like that is huge for him. But the path to Omaha is clearly hosting. What we’ve done the last two years winning somebody else’s regional is incredibly hard. If there’s a team that can do it, it’s West Virginia, because of the amount of road games that we’ve played. We consistently play on the road and over the last two years, we’ve probably won more road games than anybody in the nation from a Power Four perspective.”
West Virginia’s reaction to being No. 16 national seed. pic.twitter.com/09gKmnwUgG
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) May 25, 2026
Sophomore catcher Gavin Kelly is the Mountaineers’ leader in batting average (.379) and home runs (13), and after being part of a team that went 3-0 last year in Clemson, the All-Big 12 first-team selection is looking forward to staying home.
“Morgantown is going to be electric,” Kelly said. “It’s a dream come true and it’s really awesome. The state and city deserve it, so it’s awesome.”
WVU is 11-2 in May, including two wins last week in Arizona to advance to the Big 12 Conference Tournament title game, where it suffered a 9-0 loss to Kansas. The Jayhawks won the conference regular season crown as well and are the only other Big 12 team hosting as the No. 15 seed.
The top six finishers in the Big 12 each qualified for the NCAA Tournament, with TCU the lone conference team with legitimate postseason aspirations that was not selected for the 64-team field.
The Horned Frogs were among the first four teams left out and among a group that also included Mercer, Michigan and Pitt.
“Our league plays incredible baseball. I would have liked to see TCU get in the field,” Sabins said. “They are deserving. They have a lot of history. They have a great team. They were injured in the middle of the year and got healthier down the stretch. Being able to have half of our league make the postseason felt appropriate and that didn’t happen, but we got two hosts in, so kind of keep chipping away at it.”
As for Friday’s opponent, within minutes of learning it would be the Bearcats, Sabins couldn’t offer much in the way of a scouting report.
“As soon as Binghamton was announced, my wife was like, ‘is that good?’ I said, ‘I haven’t done a lot of scouting reports in my free time on Binghamton this spring,’” Sabins said.” So I have no idea what they’re doing. They’re obviously an incredible team. I remember several years ago they had an $80 million anonymous donation to their program and built a state of the art facility, incredible resources and it’s obviously helped them recruit at a high level and be successful there.”
Binghamton (31-20) is the America East Conference regular season and tournament champion. The Bearcats have been a Division I program since 2001 and are in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season and seventh time.
Sabins was not ready to disclose his team’s starting pitcher Friday, though it figures to be one of Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and left-hander Maxx Yehl or right-handers Chansen Cole or Ian Korn.
“They’re going to be a hell of a team, but we need to go look at just some general matchup stuff,” Sabins said. “Left versus right and how they’ve done offensively, where they stack up and what pitcher may be a good matchup for them, so that’s what we’ll do today.”
Morgantown Regional Schedule
Friday:
Game 1: Kentucky 6, Wake Forest 5
Game 2: West Virginia 10, Binghamton 1
Saturday:
Game 3: Wake Forest vs. Binghamton, noon
Game 4: Kentucky vs. West Virginia, 5 p.m.
Sunday:
Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, noon
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 5 p.m.
Monday:
Game 7 (if necessary): Rematch Game 6, TBD