On Saturday, four state champions were crowned in high school baseball, concluding the 2026 Baseball State Tournament that included several “firsts.” Some of which were overwhelming successes, while the jury is still out on some others.
This was the first tournament to be played at Jack Cook Field on the campus of Marshall University, and, according to everyone I spoke to, the change of venue brought new life to the tournament. Coaches and players gave glowing reviews of the facilities, including the Marshall Baseball and Softball facilities, which were available for teams to warm up prior to their games.
The Marshall Athletic Department staff that worked the tournament was welcoming and made the event special for the players involved. They were also accommodating for media covering the week-long tournament. And a shoutout to the CSC Security staff who worked every game of the tournament, spending over 12 hours a day in the heat and sun throughout the tournament.
Marshall put its best foot forward, and it showed.
Well done.
The video replay system was efficient and effective. Coaches used their challenges on close calls and the reviews were generally quick and the umpires got the call right.
This was the first season that the tournament was expanded to include eight teams in each classification. With a total of 32 teams participating, that necessitated an additional round of games and extended the tournament from four days to eight days. I’m still not sold that expanding the field was necessary but the WVSSAC should consider leaving the tournament schedule as is, rather than rotating it each year.
Class A teams, with the smallest rosters and, more importantly, smallest pitching staffs, had time to rest their pitchers between quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, giving them the best chances to win.
The larger schools in Class AAA and AAAA generally have larger rosters and more options if pitchers are unavailable due to pitch counts. Leave the schedule alone.
It worked. Don’t overthink it.
One more item for the suggestion box: reduce the amount of times between games. There were 50 minutes allotted between games, which in the past was necessary to drag and reline dirt infields. The field at Jack Cook Field is a full artificial turf field and is ready to go immediately. However, I was told that has already been discussed, and we could see that change implemented next year.
And we got lucky with the weather. There was just one delay because of thunderstorms.
Overall, the new venue, the games, and working with the best broadcast crew in the business made for an enjoyable week of baseball.