MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia baseball team is ready to take the field before a sellout crowd at Kendrick Family Ballpark for the first NCAA Regional hosted in Morgantown since 2019 and the third in program history.
WVU coach Steve Sabins and his players were the first of four teams in the Morgantown Regional to practice as part of team workouts that were hosted on Thursday as preparations continue for the hosts to take on Binghamton at 5 p.m. Friday, before battling either Wake Forest or Kentucky on Saturday.
Sabins, infielder Brodie Kresser and pitcher Chansen Cole, whom Sabins revealed will start Game 1 of the regional, spoke following practice, where they expressed excitement for the opportunity.
“This is really special for this state, this university, and this community,” said Sabins. “The kids have poured everything into this year, we have a lot of seniors, we have kids from all over the country, they’ve all come together and really bought into the idea of trying to do something greater and try to do something bigger than themselves.”
Kresser, a key piece of Super Regional-qualifying teams at West Virginia in 2024 and 2025, offers a veteran perspective to his teammates.
A year ago, the Mountaineers stumbled down the stretch before going 3-0 in the Clemson Regional, where Kresser earned a spot on the Regional All-Tournament team, highlighted by a 4-for-5 effort in a win against the Tigers.
With another year of experience under his belt and a .299 batting average entering the weekend, Kresser has told teammates to embrace both the opportunity and atmosphere.
“It’s a lifetime experience, not many guys (get to do it). I mean, just talking to Gravy (outfielder Matthew Graveline), he played at Ohio State and never experienced a regional,” said Kresser. “Some guys have, some guys haven’t, and I think at a school like this and with what we’ve done in the past couple of years, it makes it even more special.”
Cole has been stellar in his first season with the Mountaineers and will take the mound for Game 1 against the Bearcats, champions of the America East Conference. A transfer from Division II Newberry College, the right-handed Cole enters tournament play with an 8-1 record and an ERA of 3.04 across 80 innings pitched. He is a week removed from a six-strikeout effort in the Mountaineers’ most recent win over Arizona State in a Big 12 Conference Tournament semifinal and has been a steady presence in the rotation throughout the season.
“I’m excited and looking forward to it,” said Cole. “I expect our fans to show out with the tickets, obviously, you see how expensive they are, I think it’s going to be a good time, and we’re just going to play our best brand of baseball.”
Should the Mountaineers win Friday, they’d be assured of playing no fewer than three games in three days.
Sabins stated that various levels of analytical information are taken into account to determine how the rotation and lineups will look throughout the regional. This includes matchups accounting for Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Maxx Yehl as well as recent trends for all three teams involving left- and right-handed pitching. For the coaches, having the right matchups coincides with having the right mindset to advance in the tournament.
“When you’re looking, you basically go through each of those teams, and you just want to make sure that you’re not making some egregious matchup error, like Wake Forest or Kentucky or Binghamton hitting lefties at a hundred and fifty points higher (or something like that),” said Sabins. “So you do that prep work on the front end and then you just line up for what you think gives you the best chance to win the regional.”
WVU officials confirmed tickets for both Game 1 and Game 2 are sold out, with Yehl scheduled to take the mound on Saturday against Wake Forest or Kentucky. The Demon Deacons and Wildcats battle at noon Friday and the winners of Friday’s games will square off at 5 p.m. Saturday, while the two teams that lose the regional opener will play an elimination game at noon Saturday.
For now, Binghamton (31-20) is the sole focus for Sabins’ team, which hopes to feed off a frenzied crowd after winning back-to-back regionals away from home.
“This program continues to build and I just look forward to what’s in store here because we have not reached a ceiling,” said Sabins. “We haven’t gotten close to a ceiling at this point, there is better days ahead for Mountaineer baseball.”