GRANVILLE, W.Va. — On the afternoon of May 2, West Virginia’s Gavin Kelly and Sean Smith both hit a home run in a 9-1 victory against Kansas State.
For a team that totaled 27 home runs across its first 41 games, the two long balls in the Mountaineers’ 42nd contest were a positive development.
It was also the start of a power surge that has continued through the completion of the regular season, into the Morgantown Regional and across two games of a Super Regional Series against Cal Poly — one that WVU dominated, outscoring the Mustangs, 29-3, to advance to the College World Series for the first time.
As it prepares for Friday’s 2 p.m. game against Troy (38-30) in the CWS opener, West Virginia (45-15) does so fresh off seven home runs in two Super Regional games, including five in Saturday’s 17-1 win that marked highest single-game total in Steve Sabins’ two seasons as head coach.
Across seven games in the Morgantown Regional and Super Regional series, WVU hit 13 home runs, at least one homer in all but one contest and multiple dingers in four.
“They’re coming in bunches,” Sabins said.
That wasn’t the case for much of the 2026 campaign.
With 55 home runs in 60 games, West Virginia has the fewest homers of eight teams in the CWS and is the only one with averaging less than one long ball per game.
Yet since the first Saturday in May, the Mountaineers have 28 home runs in 19 games, with at least one home run in 14 contests and nine outings with multiple dingers.
“Good offensive teams accumulate at bats during the season, and start getting comfortable and getting a feel of what their lineup is like,” Cal Poly coach Larry Lee said. “Usually later in the season, pitchers are getting tired and making more mistakes. The velocity is not as sharp and the weather gets hotter The ballpark played hot [Friday and Saturday], at least for them. That’s just part of having a productive offense.
The catalyst has been Kelly, a sophomore catcher/second baseman and first-team All-Big 12 Conference honoree.
With 17 home runs, he’s responsible for than 30 percent of West Virginia’s team total. All but six have come since May 2, including a stretch of five straight games with at least one home run, during which time Kelly clubbed six. He hit four across 29 at bats in the Morgantown Regional and Super Regional series.
“The other day, there was a clip our media team put together, and I was like, ‘Gavin has 16 homers? Oh my God,’” Sabins said.
Smith is second on the squad with nine home runs, while Tyrus Hall follows with seven. Hall hit a home run in both matchups with the Mustangs, including a grand slam in Game 1.
As the No. 9 hitter, Hall has recently followed Ben Lumsden in the lineup. After playing sparingly throughout the regular season, Lumsden belted all three of his homers since the Morgantown Regional began May 29, including a two homer effort in the 16-run triumph.
“Tyrus is hitting homers. Lumsden is hitting homers. Power usually develops later in careers,” Sabins said. “We’re starting to see players come into that. Also, there’s some warm weather, experienced at bats, some excitement and juice in bodies.”
Having recently been moved up to the leadoff spot in the lineup, Armani Guzman accounted for his first home run this season in the team’s most recent game.
“I was happy for my teammates who really wanted me to hit one more than I was happy for myself,” said Guzman, before Kelly chimed in and said in jest, “the big goose egg is off the board.”
.The Mountaineers have hit at least one home run in 34 games this season and are 30-4 in those games.
WVU is 18-2 when it hits exactly one home run, 12-2 when hitting more than one home run and 15-11 in games without a long ball.
“They’re clutch. They hit mistakes,” Lee said. “In the conference they’re in, they face high-level pitching week in and week out and our staff was nothing different. They were very comfortable. They had seen quality high-end pitches and high velocity, so whatever we could throw at them was not going to phase them. That’s why I say it wasn’t a great matchup for us.”