MORGANTOWN — Prospect rankings and mock drafts are not high on Gavin Kelly’s priority list these days.
Ask him about winning the MVP of the Morgantown Regional in the NCAA tournament and he quickly shrugs it off.
“It’s a team MVP, it’s unreal,” he said in the moments that followed West Virginia’s 6-5 victory in 10 innings over Kentucky that led the Mountaineers to the super-regional round of the NCAA tournament. “There’s stuff that everyone on this team did, from (Dawson) Montesa to (Ian) Korn to (Maxx) Yehl to (Ben) Lumsden and Armani (Guzman). Everyone on the team deserved that. We have a team full of MVPs. It’s special to be a part of that.”
Kelly batted .400 with three home runs over the five games of the regional. He had at least one RBI in every game and finished with eight for the tournament and scored nine runs.
By the end of the regional, the only thing Kelly wanted was his name card that sat in front of him during press conferences.
It was hardly needed, because everyone knows who Kelly is by now.
That wasn’t always the case. Kelly arrived at WVU as a product of Pittsburgh Central Catholic, the high school that also handed WVU the Bulger siblings. Marc was the star quarterback for the Mountaineers in the late 1990s, while Kate and Meg represent the eighth and ninth all-time leading scorers for the WVU women’s basketball program.
As far as rankings went back then, Kelly was No. 7. Not in the country, but from the state of Pennsylvania.
Just how much can one magical season mean to one’s future pro prospects? That’s the storyline that surrounds Kelly these days, as he prepares to lead the Mountaineers (43-15) against Cal Poly in the super regionals.
A trip to the College World Series is on the line, and just as the interest in West Virginia’s baseball program is sky rocketing, so are the number of eyes on Kelly.
He’ll enter the super regionals with a .381 batting average. He’s hit 16 home runs – three shy of tying the school’s single-season record – with 10 of those coming after May 1. Kelly also has 19 doubles and 56 RBIs.
Professional baseball scouts took notice, so, too, did those in charge of the prospect rankings. Kelly entered his sophomore season ranked as the 52nd-top prospect for the 2027 MLB Amateur Draft. Baseball America now has the WVU utility man as the No. 1-ranked prospect heading into next season.
That’s how much difference one magical season can make.
“It’s a lot easier to get that attention at West Virginia than ever before,” WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. “Alek Manoah was one of those names. J.J. Wetherholt was one of those names. All of a sudden, it’s four straight regionals and three straight super regionals. People start to expect us to be a top 16 program annually, so there has to be some good players on our team. Those players are going to be drafted, and so I think it becomes easier for those publications to say, ‘Who is the next first-rounder coming out of West Virginia?’ ”
Right now, that’s Kelly, whose career path in college is eerily similar to that of Wetherholt. The St. Louis Cardinals’ second baseman was also a product of the Pittsburgh suburbs coming out of high school.
He stood out as a freshman and then exploded onto the scene as a sophomore. Wetherholt was named the Big 12 Player of the Year in 2023, after leading the country in hitting with a .449 batting average.
Kelly batted .299 as a freshman and drove in 37 runs.
“I always knew what I could do at this level,” Kelly said. “Last year was definitely a misunderstanding of what I can do. I wasn’t happy with it.”
A year later, Kelly was named all-Big 12 first team. By the time Kelly’s college career is complete, he may surpass Wetherholt’s collegiate standards.
“It’s a fair comparison,” Sabins said. “J.J. led the country in hitting as a sophomore and went on to be a first-round draft pick. He got called up to the big leagues within two years and is now hitting leadoff for the Cardinals.
“That’s pretty big shoes, obviously, and to say that’s a fair comparison kind of shows you what we’re talking about.”
