MORGANTOWN — West Virginia, you’ve got yourself an interesting weekend coming up, one that could lead the 15th-ranked Mountaineers to a second consecutive Big 12 championship and the top seed in the conference tournament.
All of it courtesy of an impressive three-game sweep of No. 7 Kansas inside Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, Kan. that was completed Sunday with a dominating 13-2 victory by the Mountaineers.
The game ended after eight innings due to the mercy rule.
No. 15 WVU (35-12, 19-8 Big 12), which will surely move up in the national rankings when the polls are released Monday, will now enter the final weekend of the regular season just one game back of the Jayhawks (37-15, 20-7) in the conference standings.
That seemed so improbable just three days ago, when it was a foregone conclusion the Jayhawks – at some point – would celebrate their first regular-season conference championship since 1949.
Kansas entered the series with a four-game lead over WVU, yet the Mountaineers kept chopping away with both historic and heroic pitching performances, a steady defense that never committed a single error the entire series and the timeliest of hitting that led to WVU outsourcing Kansas, 22-5, over the three games.
Along the way, the Mountaineers even created a bit of their own history: It was the first time in program history WVU swept a top 10-ranked team in a three-game series.
The list of standouts for WVU over the weekend was long, beginning with the complete-game effort from pitcher Maxx Yehl on Friday that seemed to set the tone for the rest of the series.
Chasen Cole and Ian Korn dominated from the mound on Saturday, combining to hold Kansas to just six hits. On Sunday, Reese Bassinger was the standout in relief. He went five innings, allowing just two hits, no runs and struck out four.
In all, the Mountaineers used just five pitchers over the three games to sweep Kansas.
Gavin Kelly hit two home runs in the series, including a two-run shot in the ninth inning on Saturday that gave the Mountaineers some breathing room in a 5-2 victory.
Sean Smith added a two-run home run in the third inning on Sunday that gave WVU the lead for good, 3-2. He also added an RBI triple in the eighth inning that put the mercy rule into play.
Paul Schoenfeld, a Wichita native who had 40 members of his family in attendance during the series, homered on Saturday and then came up with a diving catch in center field on Sunday that led to an inning-ending double play.
For added measure, Schoenfeld added a bases-loaded double in the sixth inning that scored three runs. WVU scored six runs in that inning for a 9-2 lead that essentially sealed the sweep.
OK, so what’s next?
WVU will host TCU in a three-game series beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, while Kansas will travel to BYU for a three-game series that begins at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Kansas will maintain a one-game lead, but WVU owns the tiebreaker, meaning Kansas will have to maintain that one-game advantage in order to win the Big 12 title outright.
It’s possible both teams could tie for the championship. In that case, both schools would be able to hoist a trophy, but WVU would earn the No. 1 overall seed in the Big 12 tournament in two weeks.
UCF can also still figure into the top spot, but the Knights would need to sweep Kansas State and would basically need for both WVU and Kansas to get swept in the final weekend.
As for TCU, the Horned Frogs were the overwhelming preseason favorite in the Big 12, but will enter the series in sixth place. TCU is 26-13 all-time against the Mountaineers. The last time the Horned Frogs visited Kendrick Family Ballpark, they were swept in 2023.
Kansas seemingly has the more favorable matchup with BYU being in eighth place in the Big 12 and the Cougars just lost two out of three against Texas Tech.
That’s the basics of the upcoming weekend, but WVU has now put itself on solid footing to also play for the right to host a NCAA regional for the first time since 2019.
With the sweep, WVU’s RPI improved from 24th to 18th overall and its strength of schedule went from 85th to 67th in the country. How the Mountaineers fare against TCU – ranked 46th in the RPI – and then in the Big 12 tournament could solidify WVU playing in Morgantown for the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament.
WVU is now 19-7 in true road games this season and its 19 Big 12 conference wins ties the program record for the most in one season.
