OMAHA, Neb. — The bigger the stage, the better Dawson Montesa is.
That’s certainly been the case lately.
Montesa was instrumental in helping West Virginia avoid elimination on separate occasions over consecutive days in the Morgantown Regional.
After more than a two-week layoff between game action, Montesa was again pivotal in allowing the Mountaineers to prolong their season at least one more game as the right-hander threw 5.1 scoreless innings Tuesday against Troy to lead WVU to a 12-0 victory at Charles Schwab Field.
“I found out at practice yesterday that I was going to have the ball,” Montesa said. “I guess what worked today was the curveball. I was throwing it for strikes and chase. That just opens up everything with the fastball and slider and splitter. But just pounding the zone with plus stuff could get the job done.”
The No. 16 Mountaineers (47-16) will face North Carolina (52-12-1) at 1 p.m. (CST) Wednesday. WVU needs to defeat the Tar Heels to force another matchup with the No. 5 national seed Thursday, while UNC is within one win of securing a spot in the Men’s College World Series Finals.
Montesa, who last started May 31 against Wake Forest and last pitched June 1 against Kentucky, overpowered the Trojans (39-32) with a mid-90s fastball and effectively worked in off-speed pitches to keep them off balance.
“That guy has a good chance of pitching in the big leagues,” WVU coach Steve Sabins said. “So you insert that guy on any team in the country and he has a role. It doesn’t matter any team, any conference, any situation, he’s got a role. It’s plus stuff. It’s plus athleticism and plus makeup.
“For a guy that has gone from Friday to Sunday to middle relief to closer to starting in the World Series games, in the regional, he threw 122 pitches, came back the next day, threw 10 and it was with better velocity. It’s just like, that character stuff. That’s that makeup stuff that it’s hard to pinpoint, but once you realize who somebody is, it’s so special. He’s a kid that we would put in any situation because we trust.”
After going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the Tar Heels, the Mountaineers struggled in that regard early Tuesday and stranded four runners altogether, including three in scoring position, over the first two innings.
That changed in the third when Matthew Graveline belted a double to deep left with two outs to plate Gavin Kelly with the game’s first run.
A wild pitch from Troy starting pitcher Cooper Ellingworth allowed Graveline to score the second run, and though the Mountaineers again left two in scoring position, a team that entered a nation’s-best 38-3 when scoring first was playing from in front.
Montesa retired the Trojans in order for the first time in the third and worked around Jimmy Janicki’s one-out double in the fourth that marked Troy’s first hit.
“He seems to pitch better under pressure,” Graveline said. “I’m super proud of his performance in that game and this game. He’s been so fun to work with and catch.”
Postgame thoughts from Matthew Graveline following West Virginia’s 12-0 win against Troy. pic.twitter.com/or8HAVRq0F
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) June 16, 2026
After the Trojans left two on in the home half of the fifth, Troy reliever Dylan Alonso retired the first two Mountaineers in the sixth before issuing consecutive base-on-balls to Tyrus Hall and Guzman.
That proved pivotal when Gavin Kelly followed with a three-run home run that traveled 395 feet, allowing WVU to lead 5-0 and leaving Kelly one long ball from tying Mark Landers and Jedd Gyorko for the single-season program record.
“It felt awesome to be able to hit that and help the boys out,” Kelly said. “And it’s funny how it works out because I wasn’t seeing the ball great the first two games and kind of pressing. So being able to get that is huge, just to almost like ease it.”
“Kind of the goal in my head that inning was get Gavin to the plate,” Sabins said. “That’s our best chance of kind of a knockout blow is to get Gavin to the plate. Then he had an incredible at bat and spun the ball right with two strikes. I didn’t think that ball was necessarily out. The wind really wasn’t blowing at that time. The flags were dead. He really clipped that thing good. That was an impressive swing.”
The Mountaineers made it a four-run sixth after Paul Schoenfeld prolonged the inning with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch and came home on Sean Smith’s single.
“You feel like you really have to keep your foot on the gas in order to beat a team like that,” Sabins said.
Montesa was pulled in favor of Ben McDougal with two on and one out in the sixth, and the Trojans ultimately left the bases loaded when McDougal induced a ground ball to first off the bat of Jabe Boroff to wiggle out of the jam.
“There’s a reason that West Virginia’s here. They’re really good,” Troy coach Skylar Meade said. “They have had tremendous arm talent this year, and they know who they are as a team.”
FINAL: West Virginia 12, Troy 0
Mountaineers (47-16) will face North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon.
Trojans finish 39-32. pic.twitter.com/vQ0fs8VUsI
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) June 16, 2026
Lumsden’s seventh-inning single scored Matt Ineich to make it 7-0, though Troy loaded the bases in the seventh against McDougal, who failed to record an out in the inning.
At that point, he was lifted for Reese Bassinger, who came on to face the heart of the Trojans’ lineup.
Bassinger first struck out Blake Cavill, then got Janicki to hit a fly ball to shallow center and finished the seventh with a strikeout of Seven Meier to keep Troy off the scoreboard.
“Those are the kind of situations that I really like to be in and I assumed that I would be in [during] a tournament like this,” Bassinger said. “When I got the call to go in, I was pretty pumped up already. So then getting out of it, sometimes you get a jam shot and it doesn’t go your way. But this time, Paul caught it, makes the throw home, and I strike out the next guy. It was pretty sick.
“I somehow made exact eye contact with my dad right after that happened. And he was excited. He never shows emotion. So I don’t know how I found him, but it was really cool to do that. And so I was pretty pumped.”
Bassinger struck out the side in the eighth and the Mountaineers added to their advantage with a five-spot in the ninth. That inning featured Kresser’s sacrifice fly, Guzman’s two-run double, Kelly’s run-scoring single and a Schoenfeld groundout to second that brought Guzman home with the final run.
Carson Estridge pitched the ninth for West Virginia, which recorded its seventh shutout this season.
The Mountaineers are 4-0 in elimination games.
“We’re relentless. We’re gritty and we don’t let the situation get to us,” Ineich said. “Even if it is an elimination game, it’s another game and we’re going to go win.”
Postgame thoughts from Matt Ineich following West Virginia’s 12-0 win against Troy. pic.twitter.com/fUvzBGqFlf
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) June 16, 2026
Of 14 WVU hits, Kelly led the way with three, while Guzman, Graveline and Ineich had two apiece.
Kelly also drove in four runs to lead all players.
Montesa struck out six and walked four in a win that allowed him to improve to 6-5 this season.
WVU stole seven bases, including three from Guzman, who upped his single-season program record total to 42.
“It’s part of our identity at this point. It just comes down to execution and the moment,” Guzman said.
Postgame thoughts from Armani Guzman following West Virginia’s 12-0 win against Troy. pic.twitter.com/P5mJzPYFgm
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) June 16, 2026
Troy entered with a MCWS best 23 hits and .303 batting average over the first two games.
Ellingworth allowed two runs on four hits in three innings to suffer the loss. He issued three of Troy’s eight walks.
Troy, which finished 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, had been 5-0 in elimination games this season before Tuesday.
“As the old saying goes,” Meade said, “a bad day in Omaha is certainly better than a good day most places.”