MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the first time in program history, the West Virginia University baseball team is going to the Men’s College World Series after finishing off a two-game sweep of Cal Poly in the NCAA Super Regionals with a 17-1 victory over the Mustangs on Saturday afternoon at Kendrick Family Ballpark. The Mountaineers improve to 45-15 on the season, setting a new program record for wins.
West Virginia collected 19 hits, a new season-high, including a season-high five home runs, and stole a season-high nine bases, the most since stealing 10 against Pitt in 2022.
Senior Ben Lumsden led the charge with two home runs and five RBI. Junior Armani Guzman hit his first home run of the season while driving in three runs and stealing his 38th base of the season, tying a WVU single-season record. Sophomore Gavin Kelly went 3-for-4 with a home run while junior Tyrus Hall hit his second home run of the weekend.
Cal Poly took a 1-0 lead in the first, but after that, it was all Mountaineers, scoring seven runs in the second inning. Sophomore Matt Ineich and senior Matthew Graveline executed a first-and-third double steal to put WVU on the board before Lumsden hit a three-run home run to give the Mountaineers the lead. Hall followed with a solo home run as WVU went back-to-back.
Graduate student Sean Smith kept the scoring going in the inning with an RBI single before Graveline knocked in a run with a groundout as the seven runs matched a season-high in an inning for the Mountaineers, set back on the opening weekend against Georgia Southern.
West Virginia continued its scoring with three runs in the third as Guzman hit a two-run home run before senior Paul Schoenfeld had an RBI single. In the fourth, Lumsden hit a two-run home run to extend the lead to 12-1.
Kelly hit his 17th home run in the fifth inning, third most in a season by a Mountaineer, just two behind Jedd Gyorko and Mark Landers’ record of 19. In the sixth, Guzman hit an RBI single before Schoenfeld had a run-scoring groundout. The Mountaineers capped the scoring in the seventh inning with another first-and-third double steal by Ineich and Graveline.
A record-breaking crowd of 4,675 fans had to wait about an hour-an-a-half to celebrate due to rain in the eighth inning, but when play resumed, graduate student Ian Korn threw a scoreless inning before senior Ben McDougal closed out the game with a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out the last batter of the game. Redshirt junior Maxx Yehl earned the win with 5.0 innings while striking out four and allowing just the one run.
The Mountaineers will play on Friday, June 12, against Troy from Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. Game time is still to be determined.
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES TICKET INFORMATION
Due to extremely high volume of ticket requests already received and very limited available inventory in the WVU ticket allotment for the 2026 Men’s College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, WVU will be unable to fulfill any requests for Mountaineer Athletic Club (MAC) members or WVU baseball season ticket holders that are below the $50,000 MAC annual membership level. Those below the $50,000 level are strongly encouraged to purchase through the NCAA ticketing website.
MAC members at the $50,000 membership level that have not already requested tickets can log in to their WVUGAME.com account to request tickets to the games. Fans are able to request up to four (4) tickets.
If the ticket request is fulfilled, fans will automatically be charged for the first two games that WVU plays in. Should WVU advance to further games in the College World Series, fans will automatically be charged for each game the Mountaineers advance to in the tournament. Tickets will only be valid for the games the Mountaineers play. No refunds or exchanges will be provided.
All ticket requests will be allocated in priority order, the same as the NCAA Morgantown Regional and Super Regional. The deadline to request tickets is Monday, June 8 at noon. Fans will be notified if their ticket request was fulfilled or denied by 5 p.m. on Monday.
Request Link: https://bit.ly/3RJKCvp
NCAA Ticket Website Link: https://bit.ly/4v51DyL
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
