Mountainers Set to Take on LSU in Super Regionals

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University baseball team heads to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for NCAA Super Regionals to take on No. 6 LSU. The best-of-three series gets started on Saturday, June 7, at 2 p.m. ET, followed by Sunday, June 8, at 6 p.m. ET. Game three will be on Monday, June 9, if necessary.
 
Game one will air on ESPN while game two will be on ESPN2 with Dave Neal and Ben McDonald on the call. It can also be heard on the Mountaineers Sports Network with Andrew Caridi and Jake Weghorst on all radio affiliates as well as the Varsity Network, WVU Gameday App, and WVUSports.com.  
 
The Mountaineers earned their spot in the Super Regionals by going 3-0 in the Clemson Regional this past weekend. West Virginia opened with a 4-3 win against Kentucky on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Armani Guzman. The Mountaineers followed that with a 9-6 win over Clemson, scoring four runs in the ninth inning. In the regional final, WVU scored six runs in the eighth inning to win 13-12 over the Wildcats.
 
Guzman was named the Regional MVP after going 8-for-12 with six RBI. Senior Brodie Kresser, junior Logan Sauve, and redshirt senior Griffin Kirn all joined him on the All-Tournament Team.

The Mountaineers enter the Super Regional with a 44-14 overall record and sat atop the Big 12 standings with a 19-9 mark, winning their second Big 12 title in three years and first outright championship.  It is the second Super Regional appearance in program history and first under first-year head coach Steve Sabins. It is the second consecutive Super Regional appearance after playing in Chapel Hill in 2024.

Suave and Kirn were both named to the All-Big 12 first team while senior outfielder Kyle West and graduate pitcher Jack Kartsonas earned spots on the second team. Gavin Kelly was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman team while four others – sophomore Chase Meyer, senior Reese Bassinger, junior Sam White, and senior Jace Rinehart – all earned honorable mention status.

 

White leads the Mountaineers with a .352 batting average, West leads with10 home runs, and Rinehart has a team-high 51 RBI and 21 doubles. West is also hitting .347 with 15 doubles and 36 RBI.

 

On the mound, Kirn leads the team with 100 strikeouts in 95.0 innings to go along with a 5-2 record, a 3.13 ERA and one save which he picked up in the regional championship game against Kentucky. Kartsonas is 6-3 with a 2.94 ERA and 76 strikeouts in 64.1 innings. Bassinger has been the top reliever for WVU with a 7-1 record, 4.28 ERA, and 43 strikeouts in a team-high 29 appearances.

 

LSU enters the Super Regional with a 46-15 overall record after winning the Baton Rouge Regional last week, defeating Little Rock, Dallas Baptist, and Little Rock again. Unlike WVU, the Tigers dropped the first championship game against the Trojans before rallying for a win over Little Rock on Monday night.
 
The Tigers are the No. 6 overall seed and are led by head coach Jay Johnson in his fourth year. Johnson and the Bayou Bengals won the national title in 2023, the seventh in program history.
 
Kade Anderson and Athony Eyanson lead a pitching staff that holds a 3.73 ERA, seventh best in the nation. Anderson leads the team with 156 strikeouts in 96.0 innings while Eyanson has 135 strikeouts in 93.2 innings.
 
Ethan Frey leads the team with a .359 batting average while Jared Jones has 20 home runs and 69 RBI. Derek Curiel has been one of the top freshmen in the country with a .341 batting average, six home runs, 47 RBI, and a team-high 18 doubles.
 
The winner of this weekend’s series will advance to the Men’s College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. The 78^th MCWS gets started on Friday, June 13.
 
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