No. 9 WVU (35-12, 19-8) will close out the regular season in Morgantown Thursday-Saturday, May 14-16. TCU (32-18, 16-11) comes in looking to spoil the fun for West Virginia.
The Mountaineers enter the regular-season finale trailing No. 14 Kansas by one game in the Big 12 standings. In their last time out, WVU swept then-No. 7 Kansas on the road in Lawrence, getting big-time performances from Maxx Yehl and Chansen Cole. The series win was the highest-ranked road series win in program history and marked the program’s first top-10 series win since taking two of three from No. 10 TCU in 2022.
WVU has the potential to clinch a share of the Big 12 regular-season title or win it outright this weekend. If WVU sweeps TCU and Kansas drops one game, the Mountaineers would win the title outright. If both teams go 2-1, they would share the title, but WVU would earn the No. 1 seed in next week’s Big 12 Tournament.
TCU enters as one of the top programs in the country with six College World Series berths, 20 NCAA Tournament appearances and four Big 12 titles.
The Horned Frogs are led offensively by Cole Cramer, who carries a .322 batting average. Sawyer Strosnider leads the team in home runs with 13 this season.
WVU’s offense has also surged behind Gavin Kelly, who has hit six home runs over his last seven games and has become one of the hottest bats in the Big 12 entering the final weekend of the regular season.
Zack James leads the TCU pitching staff with a perfect 6-0 record and a 3.49 ERA.
WVU will make a change to the starting rotation to close the regular season, starting the top three pitchers in the Big 12. Ian Korn will get the nod in Game 1. The former Division II Pitcher of the Year will make his second start of the season and enters with a 2.96 ERA.
Southpaw ace Maxx Yehl will start Friday after throwing a complete game in his last outing. He carries a 2.04 ERA and leads the team with 79 strikeouts.
Sophomore Chansen Cole will get the start in the regular-season finale with a 2.71 ERA.
TCU starters are TBD.
U92 will have live play-by-play coverage of all three games this weekend on 91.7 FM, U92TheMoose.com, the TuneIn app and Alexa-enabled devices.
Thursday’s game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning at 6:10 p.m. Sports Director Quinn Robie will have play-by-play duties alongside Brayden Laslo and Andrew Hartlove.
Friday’s game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning at 6:10 p.m. Join Sports Director Quinn Robie alongside Cody Burton and Ben Stautzenbach.
The regular-season finale is set for 1 p.m. U92 Assistant Sports Director Nico Caretto will handle play-by-play duties alongside incoming U92 Sports Director Brett Berner and Nate Skinner.
*Photo by Nate Skinner*