MORGANTOWN — The first point that needs to get across about the Clemson, S.C. Regional that the 24th-ranked WVU baseball team is set to open at noon Friday with a first-round game against Kentucky is that no one in the region is even close to being thought of as unbeatable.
That includes No. 12 Clemson, the top seed and the host team in the regional. The Tigers enter the NCAA tournament having got banged around by North Carolina, 14-4, in the ACC tournament title game.
The last time the Tigers (44-16) played inside Doug Kingsmore Stadium, Duke took two of three against them.
Kentucky (29-24) has lost four straight heading into the NCAA tournament and eight of its last 12.
Granted, some of those defeats came against teams seemingly from the American League Central — based on the Wildcats’ strength of schedule rating — but no one is comparing this Kentucky team to its 2024 version, when the Wildcats advanced to the College World Series.
USC Upstate? Well, the Spartans (36-23) won the Big South and have won six in a row, but they are the long shot and were shut out by Clemson, 7-0, earlier in the season.
Which brings us to WVU (41-14), which has spent the last portion of the season proving just how beatable it is.
After a 34-4 start, the Mountaineers were once on pace to approach a 50-win season. Now, WVU is a 50-50 shot just to reach 42.
If the Mountaineers were a stock, there wouldn’t be a lot of buyers at the moment, which brings us to the point they know how this feels.
They were in the exact same rut last season, having taken a quick exit from the Big 12 tournament and looking every bit like a team that had no gas remaining in the tank.
And then WVU traveled across the country and won the Tucson, Ariz. Regional.
“We just had fun,” was how WVU outfielder Kyle West attempted to explain the quick turnaround. “We acted like monkeys. We went and watched one of the ‘Planet of the Apes’ movies. We just carried all the fun we had off the field onto the field and just played for one another, because we didn’t want it to end.”
Now, one can make the argument that WVU won that regional last season without having to play host Arizona, which was upset in the opening game by Grand Canyon.
True, but the Mountaineers also won that regional with its star player — J.J. Wetherholt — batting .250 and not getting a single base hit until the third game.
“We knew that for some people, it was going to be their last games,” West continued. “For the whole team, it was going to be our last time as that team. Going into it, we were just trying to play for as long as possible to remain with each other.”
West’s words ring even more true a year later.
Despite the rough finish, this is a team that brought another level of national respect to the WVU baseball program.
It’s the first WVU team to surpass 40 wins. It won a Big 12 regular-season championship.
And there are a ton of guys in the starting lineup who are likely not going to be back next season, whether that’s through graduation, the MLB draft or otherwise.
In a WVU uniform all at the same time, this regional may represent the final time we see West, as well as teammates Grant Hussey, Sam White, Logan Sauve, Skylar King, Jace Rineart, Griffin Kirn, Jack Kartsonas and Carson Estridge.
Not to look ahead, but that’s a lot of starters WVU head coach Steve Sabins must replace next season.
It’s also a ton of guys who may not want this season to simply end in South Carolina.
If the feeling of togetherness was enough motivation to write one heck of a story in 2024, it’s definitely there again in 2025.
“Anybody can win any given day,” West said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what your record is. You just have to play your best baseball every time you step on the field and give yourself a chance to win.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a No. 1 seed or a No. 4 seed, anyone can win it.”
