College baseball’s 2026 National Champion will be crowned late Monday when Oklahoma and North Carolina meet in the decisive third game of the Men’s College World Series Finals.
Should the Tar Heels defeat the Sooners for the second time in as many days to overcome a 1-0 series deficit, it would mark the second straight season West Virginia was eliminated by the National Champion.
A year ago, WVU lost both games of a Super Regional series at LSU. This season, the Mountaineers qualified for the MCWS for the first time in program history, finished a national semifinalist and were within two victories of playing in the finals.
As is custom throughout college sports and college baseball in particular, the Mountaineers’ 2027 roster is sure to look much different than this year’s version, and they’ve already had a number of additions and losses through the transfer portal. The former is something WVU coach Steve Sabins kept in mind throughout the postseason and even while guiding his team in Omaha.
“Would I prefer to not do Zoom calls in the hotel before we come play a game in Omaha? Probably. But for every coach that complains about that, the other side of it is that we’re looking for parity in the sport,” Sabins said. “We’re sitting in Omaha, so it’s a pretty good marketing tool for us to begin with. So does that mean we need to work a little bit harder while we’re in Omaha? Maybe.
“But 11 years ago, when West Virginia hadn’t been to a regional in 20 years, I was pretty thankful that I was getting to work and recruit young guys. And if I wasn’t in Omaha, I can promise you I’d be outworking everybody that was. There’s some sort of balance there. You’ve got to give people an opportunity to make jumps and strides. It’s not the rich always has to get richer in these situations, right? I’m pretty sure we’re going to capitalize on going to Omaha and recruit the hell out of that.”
The Mountaineers are 91-33 in Sabins’ two seasons as head coach with the two winningest seasons in program history at 44 and 47 victories, respectively. That includes an 11-5 mark in the NCAA Tournament.
That success has undoubtedly helped to peak interest in the program and led to no shortage of national notoriety throughout the recent postseason run, starting with consecutive nail-biting victories over Kentucky in the Morgantown Regional that were among the more memorable contests nationally this season.
Those two wins put the Mountaineers in position to host Cal Poly, where they had their way in the Super Regional while playing in front of raucous environments at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
“The whole season was really fun,” said Armani Guzman, whose postseason performances did nothing to lessen his star power. “It was everything anyone could ask for. And we’re super grateful that it ended the way it did.”
West Virginia and UNC are the only two programs to reach the Super Regional round each of the last two seasons. The Tar Heels, within one win of their first National Championship, are the only team to end their season in Omaha multiple times over the last three years.
That helps illustrate the parity in college baseball, and while increased expectations are to be expected for the Mountaineers moving forward, it’s far-fetched to expect West Virginia or any other team to regularly end seasons in Omaha.
Both the No. 1 and No. 2 national seeds have failed to make it out of regional play each of the last two years. In 2025, No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 2 Texas fell short of the Super Regional round, and history repeated itself three weeks ago when top seed UCLA and No. 2 Georgia Tech were ousted before 16 teams remained.
WVU can and should remain a successful program moving forward, particularly with Sabins overseeing it.
But it’s important to understand playing at or near your best when it matters most is almost always a requirement to advance and there’s an element of randomness that comes with it.
For example, WVU needed to win three straight games over a 36-hour stretch to win the Morgantown Regional. In the second of those three games against Kentucky, there was a heroic five-inning effort from Mountaineer relief pitcher Ben McDougal after the left-hander had pitched all of 6.1 innings this season to that point. Even with McDougal’s strong showing, WVU trailed 9-6 in the ninth inning, and were it not for that frame starting with a Caeden Cloud error at third base, the five runs the Mountaineers scored in their final at bat to rally for an 11-9 victory may have never been possible.
The next night, WVU squandered a four-run lead in the eighth, only to win 6-5 in 10 innings.
There’s a reason many players from eliminated teams in Omaha take time to bottle up infield dirt at Charles Schwab Field to hang on to — because there’s no telling if and when they’ll be back.
“It means so much,” said WVU centerfielder Paul Schoenfeld, who took part in the tradition last Wednesday after WVU lost to UNC, 12-7. “Only a few people get to do this. Being in the Final Four means a ton. This is a special ground right here, so you take it, cherish it and enjoy it.”