MORGANTOWN ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” Once regional play in the NCAA baseball tournament begins, the action comes fast and furiously. ThereÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s not a week off between games, as there is in the College Football Playoff, or even a day break between contests, as there are in the menÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s and womenÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s basketball tournaments.
ItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s play, win or lose, then play again through the first three, or if necessary, four days of the event.
That leaves little time for prepping scouting reports based on the outcome of the first dayÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s games, so much of that gets done before teams depart for their regional sites or on the practice day before regionals begin.
For West Virginia, that will include looks at regional host Clemson, along with No. 4 seed USC Upstate and No. 3 seed Kentucky. The initial priority will be on the Wildcats, who the Mountaineers face at noon on Friday at ClemsonÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
Kentucky has dropped off somewhat in 2025, winning 29 games after recording 40 and 46 wins in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and advancing to the MenÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s College World Series last season. Still, playing in the SEC, the Wildcats were competitive, winning 13 of their 30 league games while recording series wins over Texas A&M, Tennessee, South Carolina and Oklahoma.
That schedule was judged the eighth-toughest in the nation, and with 10 one-run defeats, Kentucky certainly wasnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t being outclassed by its opponents. It was 8-19 against Quad 1 foes, playing twice as many such games as WVU (5-8).
The Wildcats were knocked out of the SEC tournament in their opening game by Oklahoma and thus will have had nine days off before facing WVU on Friday.
Like WVU, which is going to the NCAAs in its third consecutive year for the first time since the 1960s, Kentucky also set a precedent in being picked to a regional three seasons in a row for the first time in its history. Also similarly to the Mountaineers, the Wildcats have had a tough finish to the season, going 4-8 over their final 12 games, including sweeps at the hands of Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.
The teams had one common opponent this year in Lipscomb. WVU swept a four-game series from the Bisons, while Kentucky split a two-game set. All of those games were played at Lipscomb in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Mountaineers are expected to go with starting pitcher Griffin Kirn in the Friday opener. HeÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s gone 6 2/3, seven, eight and nine innings in his last four starts, with the last the complete-game win over Cincinnati in the Big 12 tournament. Not an overpowering thrower, he has relied on good location and a mix of three pitches to fashion a 3.32 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP in 15 starts this season, in which he won five of his seven decisions.
WVU will face either host Clemson (44-16, RPI nine) or USC Upstate (36-23, RPI 87) in its second game of the regional on Saturday. In a continuing theme, the Tigers were 3-9 in their final four regular season series, but that was after six consecutive ACC series wins. Clemson also worked its way out of that dip with three wins in the ACC tournament, making it to the championship game before being run-ruled by North Carolina.
Clemson is making its 47th all-time appearance in the NCAAs and has advanced to the super regionals 16 times, most recently in 2024.
The Spartans won both the Big South regular season and tournament titles, going 19-5 in league play and sweeping three consecutive games in the conference tournament to claim its automatic bid. They did not share any common opponents with WVU, but did face Clemson in an early-season non-conference game, dropping a 7-0 decision.
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