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Dominion Post
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
Questions still remain, but WVU baseball has interesting potential for 2026
MORGANTOWN — Three years ago, Logan Sauve enrolled at West Virginia as the top-ranked prep catcher from Pennsylvania. Sam White actually turned down the opportunity at a professional hockey career in Canada to play college baseball. The most successful season in WVU baseball history did not begin with a 4-2 win against Jacksonville on Valentine's Day in 2025. Instead, WVU's Steve Sabins, who wrapped up his first season as head coach with a 44-16 record and a trip to the super regionals, said it was a process. WVU FINAL STATS 'What we were able to do this season was a compilation of effort, for me, over the last decade,' Sabins said. 'The snapshot of the last two years, for me, is not accurate, although they've been the most successful two years in program history. It's been a lot of work by a lot of great people over the course of 10 to 15 years.' What did that process involve? In short, it was a collection of having things spin the right way over a long period of time, whether that was through recruiting battles, the transfer portal, the MLB draft and the development of WVU's players. 'I would say that I want us to be remembered as a great group of young men who worked every day to become the best players we could become,' Sauve said. 'I think that translates to the performance we put on the field this year. Playing in back-to-back super regionals is something I never envisioned happening in this program.' The obvious question is what's next, a difficult one to answer in the moments following the Mountaineers' 12-5 loss to LSU, which eliminated WVU from the NCAA tournament in the round of 16 for a second consecutive season. Still, Sabins took a stab at it. 'There's been more exponential growth over the last 10 years, maybe more so than any program in the nation,' he said. In other words, there are no expectations this was the end of an era for the Mountaineers. The steps taken toward the 2026 season begins a month from now, when the MLB draft begins July 13. As of now, there is no WVU player ranked among the top 200 prospects for the draft, which constitutes enough players to cover the first five rounds and compensation selections. The draft does stretch 20 rounds over the course of three days, and it will be the totality of the draft that will provide the first clues as to what the 2026 roster will look like. Players like White, Sauve and Skylar King could all be selected in the later rounds, but all would have the option of returning for their senior season. Then there are some hard-throwing pitchers such as Carson Estridge and Robby Porco, who would have the same options. It's possible WVU could have all or none of those players returning next season. Pitchers Griffin Kirn and Jack Kartsonas are out of eligibility. Kirn and Kartsonas were the top two starters by the end of the season. Weekend starter Gavin Van Kempen announced he was entering the transfer portal on Tuesday. The school's all-time home run leader, Grant Hussey, as well as outfielders Kyle West and Jace Rineart are also out of eligibility. That's a combined 27 home runs and 126 RBIs that needs replacing for next season. Senior shortstop Brodie Kresser has a season of eligibility remaining. He did not walk during the team's Senior Day festivities, but there's been no word if he will return to college. He was third on the team with 41 RBIs this season. Then there are underclassmen such as Armani Guzman and Gavin Kelly, who may be the foundation of the team's offense next season. Kelly was an all-Big 12 freshman after hitting .299 with 37 RBIs. Guzman was named the MVP of the Clemson Regional and batted .327 with 22 RBIs. On the mound, sophomore Chase Meyer and his blazing 97 miles-per-hour fastball makes him a top returner. He finished 9-2 this season with a 3.94 ERA. Lefty Maxx Yehl is also expected to return next season after sitting out this season following Tommy John surgery. He was 2-0 with a 3.99 ERA in 2024. What also is known is WVU's 2025 recruiting class is ranked 36th in the nation by Perfect Game — fourth among Big 12 schools — and includes a healthy dose of high school pitchers and infielders. Canadian pitcher Ben Goodacre, Michigan pitcher Wyatt Mosley and South Carolina shortstop Zahir Barjam will be some of the incoming freshmen to keep an eye on for next season.
USA Today
08-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Who is Steve Sabins? West Virginia coach has Mountaineers in NCAA super regionals
Who is Steve Sabins? West Virginia coach has Mountaineers in NCAA super regionals Show Caption Hide Caption 5 men's NCAA baseball tournament players to watch The Mongomery Advertiser's Adam Cole and The Tennesseean's Aria Gerson break down the top players to watch in the men's NCAA baseball tournament. The super regional round of the 2025 NCAA baseball tournament is filled with familiar faces in the dugout, stalwart coaches who have come to define the sport over the course of their respective careers. There's 64-year-old Dave Van Horn, who has been the coach at Arkansas for two decades and has the Razorbacks well-positioned for their 10th College World Series appearance under his watch. There's Tony Vitello, the unapologetically brash Tennessee coach who's a year removed from leading the Vols to their first-ever national title. There's Jay Johnson, the LSU coach who guided the Tigers to a CWS championship in 2023 and had Arizona within a game of doing the same in 2016. Among those still in the hunt to take their teams to Omaha, Nebraska for the 2025 CWS are greener, lesser-known figures. REQUIRED READING: NCAA baseball tournament bracket: Super regional matchups, schedule, pairings for CWS West Virginia is in the super regionals for just the second time in program history, with this run coming under the watch of coach Steve Sabins. The fresh-faced Sabins is in his first season as the Mountaineers' coach, but has quickly made his impact felt, leading them to a Big 12 regular-season championship and an NCAA tournament regional title. Though they dropped the first game of their Baton Rouge Super Regional series against No. 6 LSU on June 7, falling 16-9, they can make the CWS for the first time in program history with two wins against Johnson's squad. As West Virginia goes for that historical feat, here's a closer look at Sabins and his background: Steve Sabins West Virginia Sabins isn't just in his first season as West Virginia's head coach. He's in his first season as a college baseball head coach, period. He was hired into the role in June 2024, taking over for the retiring Randy Mazey. Mazey's career ended on a high note, with the Mountaineers advancing to the super regional round for the first time ever before being eliminated by No. 4 North Carolina. Sabins has successfully picked up where his former boss left off. Entering its June 8 game against LSU, West Virginia is 44-15 and won an outright conference regular-season championship for only the second time since 1997, making it through Big 12 play with a 19-9 record. Though Sabins is in his first season as head coach, he wasn't a stranger to the Mountaineers' program. He was an assistant at West Virginia for the previous nine seasons, from 2016-24, first as an assistant coach and later as the associate head coach. He was also recruiting coordinator from 2021-23. As an assistant, Sabins helped bring in some of the most prolific recruiting classes in program history. In 2018 and 2019, West Virginia signed back-to-back top-25 classes, the first time it had ever done so. Prior to West Virginia, Sabins spent four seasons in various roles at Oklahoma State, serving as a graduate assistant, volunteer assistant and player development coordinator. The Austin, Texas native graduated in 2011 from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, where he played his final two college seasons after previous stops at Oklahoma State (2009), Daytona State College (2008) and Angelina College (2007). REQUIRED READING: LSU baseball vs West Virginia prediction for Game 2 of Baton Rouge Super Regional Steve Sabins coaching career Here's a look at Sabins' resume over his college baseball coaching career: 2025-present : West Virginia head coach : West Virginia head coach 2022-24: West Virginia associate head coach West Virginia associate head coach 2018-23 : West Virginia recruiting coordinator : West Virginia recruiting coordinator 2016-21 : West Virginia assistant coach : West Virginia assistant coach 2015 : Oklahoma State volunteer assistant : Oklahoma State volunteer assistant 2014 : Oklahoma State player development coordinator : Oklahoma State player development coordinator 2012-13: Oklahoma State graduate assistant Steve Sabins record In his first season as a head coach, Sabins has led West Virginia to a 44-15 record heading into its June 8 game against LSU in the Baton Rouge Super Regional. Steve Sabins age Born on May, 11, 1987, Sabins is 38 years old.
Dominion Post
08-06-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
LSU routs WVU 16-9 in Game 1 of super regional
BATON ROUGE, La. — Even on a day with a heat index of 103 degrees, it snowballed quickly for the 24th-ranked West Virginia baseball team. The Mountaineers led 1-0 in the fourth inning of Game 1 of the Baton Rouge Super Regional, but seven runs in the span of as many batters turned the series opener into a 16-9 LSU rout. BOX SCORE LSU (47-15) scored three runs in the fourth and seven in the fifth to take a 1-0 lead in the series, forcing WVU (44-15) to win the next two days if it is to reach its first College World Series in program history. 'We played competitive baseball,' WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. 'The game slipped away from us out of the bullpen. We asked a lot of guys to compete at a high level, quite a few kids that hadn't been in a scenario like that before.' WVU starter Griffin Kirn battled through the first three innings and even had a 1-0 lead thanks to Jace Rinehart's second inning RBI single, but the warning signs were there. Kirn hit a batter and fell behind 3-0 in another count in the second, walked the lead-off man in the third and hit two of the first three batters in the fourth. Finally, the bill came due for his command issues. LSU freshman Derek Curiel served a three-run homer out to left field, igniting the 12,093 strong home crowd and starting West Virginia's rapid unraveling. 'I didn't think Kirn was quite as sharp,' Sabins said. 'And it probably had something to do with the fact that he threw twice in a week for the first time all season last weekend. He started game one of the regional and closed out the regional, and then obviously the conditions today being so hot, so humid, a little bit shorter rest for him, he wasn't quite as crisp.' Kirn made it through the fourth inning without further damage, but allowed a lead-off single in the fifth. The single came around to score, and a combination of three relievers — JJ Glasscock, Cole Fehrman and Tyler Hutson — allowed six more runs in the inning as the Tigers put the game out of reach. Back-to-back walks set the table for shortstop Steven Milam, who shot a grand slam out to right field. 'We have a really good team,' Sabins said. 'It takes our depth and it takes everybody if we're going to win at the highest levels. We didn't think that he [Kirn] was the best option there.' Milam's slam was actually the first of two on the day for the Tigers. One inning later, another procession of walks teed up Josh Pearson for a grand slam of his own with all three runners in front of him reaching on free passes. West Virginia pitchers issued a season-high tying 13 free bases between eight walks and five hit batters, and LSU scored 10 of them in. All of it laid waste to the only real positive of the day for the Mountaineers, a strong offensive outing against Kade Anderson. The Mountaineers pounded out seven runs on nine hits against the likely top-10 overall pick in next month's MLB Draft, Anderson's career-high allowed in both departments. Skylar King and Chase Swain provided the biggest blows of a four-run sixth inning, and Gavin Kelly hit West Virginia's first home run of the game, a two-run shot in the seventh. Kyle West added a towering two-run homer of his own off LSU reliever William Schmidt in the ninth, giving the Mountaineers their third consecutive game with at least nine runs. 'Working a pitch count is one thing,' designated hitter Sam White said about the approach against Anderson. 'But if he gives you something to hit you're not trying to foul it off, you're trying to hit it.' The score looked a little closer at the end, but the reality of the day was one of the nation's most talented teams overwhelmed West Virginia. The only positive for the Mountaineers is unlike a regional where a loss in game one requires you to win four straight elimination games to survive, this is a standard three-game series. West Virginia had two series this season, BYU and Texas Tech, where it lost game one and responded to win the next two. This challenge will be much greater, but the mentality is the same. 'They could have beat us 40-0 and tomorrow it's going to be 0-0 at one pitch,' White said. 'There's nothing to it. It's a series.' Game 2 of the series is set for 6 p.m. Sunday. Neither side confirmed a starting pitcher, but it will almost certainly be West Virginia's Jack Kartsonas to the mound for the against LSU's Anthony Eyanson. — Story by Alan Cole
USA Today
07-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
'Drunk frat guys?' West Virginia coach rips Clemson for 'bogus' visitors' bullpen setup
'Drunk frat guys?' West Virginia coach rips Clemson for 'bogus' visitors' bullpen setup West Virginia Mountaineers coach Steve Sabins isn't a fan of Clemson baseball's Doug Kingsmore Stadium -- or at least not the visitors' bullpen area of the stadium. Sabins, whose team defeated the Tigers 9-6 at the Clemson Regional of the NCAA Tournament last Saturday before clinching the regional the following day against Kentucky, spoke about the environment at Doug Kingsmore on Friday ahead of West Virginia's best-of-three Super Regional showdown with the LSU Tigers at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge. What does Sabins think of the setup? Plenty, it seems. Among the adjectives the first-year Mountaineers coach said of the designated area for opposing pitchers to warm up at Clemson's stadium, Sabins called it "bogus" and "kind of a minor league thing." When asked by a reporter about any "issues" he had with the setup, Sabins sounded off: "I like that you called them 'issues.' I agree with 'issues.' I think they need to fix that deal... I think it's 8,000 fans at Clemson. They're excited. It's an awesome atmosphere. It's a little bit more like a minor league atmosphere I think than [LSU]. When I've watched ballgames here, they don't pump as much music into the stadium. The crowd here is raucous and really into the game, but it's more of a traditional college baseball setting." There weren't 8,000 fans on hand for Clemson vs. West Virginia. The State's Chapel Fowler noted that 6,475 people attended the game. And according to Clemson, the Doug Kingsmore Stadium attendance record is 6,891 when the Tigers defeated South Carolina, 5-3, on February 28. Sabins called Clemson's bullpen setup for opposing teams "bogus": "At Clemson, it's kind of that minor league thing where it's offensive-oriented. Every time that there's a ball or a walk or a hit, the music gets louder, and so it's a little bit like an artificial heart rate increase I think for pitchers and for defenders. The bullpen thing is bogus at Clemson." Sabins went on to say that the visitors' bullpen set up at Clemson could allow "drunk frat guys" to interfere with opposing relievers. "You can get so close and it's a net where as a pitcher is warming up, someone could actually grab a pitcher's arm," Sabins said. "And so I'm all for environment. It's just that as somebody was warming up, somebody could actually reach out and grab an arm." Did any Clemson fan actually grab a West Virginia player's arm? "I don't want to say that," Sabins said. "I don't know that for certain. It's close enough to be able to do that, so I think as a pitcher is warming up, psychologically, if you feel like you're in danger, you may adjust your mechanics or you may feel like it's too tight. So there probably needs to be a rule in place just to control that a little bit." Here's a clip of Sabins' comments, courtesy of and posted by The State's Chapel Fowler. Contact us @Clemson_Wire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Clemson Tigers news and notes, plus opinions.
Dominion Post
06-06-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
Ben Lumsden 'swallowed his pride' and worked to get back into WVU's starting baseball lineup
MORGANTOWN — Prior to this season, Ben Lumsden had started 101 games in his college baseball career, 51 at UT Arlington as a freshman and another 50 last season at WVU. It's with that background that likely made Steve Sabins' conversation with Lumsden earlier this season slightly uncomfortable. 'In the middle of the year, we had a meeting, and I was like, 'Do you want to be here?' ' Sabins said. 'He was like, 'Do you want me here?' Yeah, I wanted him here, but he had to get better. He wasn't good enough to get on the field.' WVU STATS It is that type of straight-forward conversation that can send a college athlete any number of ways. Generally, it's conversations like those that will lead the athlete to the transfer portal, especially after he went from 50 starts in 2024 to four starts a season later. Not Lumsden, who took over as the Mountaineers' starting first baseman during the Clemson Regional last week. In the 13-12 victory against Kentucky to win that regional, Lumsden was 2 for 5 and drove in four runs. Turns out Lumsden did want to be at WVU. 'He swallowed his pride. That's hard to hear,' Sabins continued. 'A guy who was a stud for us last year had to swallow his pride. He went and worked harder than that guy has ever worked before, and that's what this is about.' It is an inside glimpse to the type of culture and reputation Sabins wants to build at WVU. He is not looking for the type of situation where players get too comfortable and slack off after earning a starting position. That's not going to lead WVU (44-14) to the next level. 'It's not easy,' Sabins explains. 'You have to work harder than everybody else. LSU has got good players. Texas has good players. Kentucky has good players and great resources. We're not going to be better than them by working half as hard, that's for damn sure.' He's also not looking for players who take the easy way out and transfer when adversity strikes. 'Currently, it's very easy to run when things don't go your way,' he said. 'It's extremely easy to quit or to think the grass is greener. 'Young people have a decision to make, and it's becoming increasingly more difficult for young people to make the decision of putting your feet in, dig in, get better and don't blame others. It's not a leadership issue. It could be a you issue.' And so we get back to Lumsden, who Sabins said will one day, 'Play pro ball, if he continues to get better.' Lumsden's two-run base hit in the fourth inning tied the Kentucky game, 4-4. In the eighth inning, Lumsden was even more clutch, coming up with another two-RBI base hit that tied the game, 12-12, before Armani Guzman scored the go-ahead run with another base hit. For added measure, Lumsden also had an RBI single in the ninth inning that helped the Mountaineers beat Clemson 9-6. WVU scored four runs in that ninth inning to take the lead. All of this after Lumsden suddenly became the starter at first base, taking over for four-year starter Grant Hussey, the school's all-time leader in home runs. It's likely Lumsden will be back in the starting lineup when the Mountaineers travel to No. 6 overall seeded LSU (46-15) at 2 p.m. Saturday for the super regionals. 'In these scenarios, when you're going up against really great teams, you have to maximize everything you got,' Sabins said. 'Every bullet that you can pull out, you try to. I just thought that Ben Lumsden gave us the best chance offensively in some of those places.'
