GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
For the West Virginia program, Alex Box Stadium this weekend will be the closest it has ever gotten to Omaha, Nebraska, and the College World Series.
The Mountaineers (44-14, 19-9 Big 12 champions) have reached Omaha South. Through 16 NCAA postseason appearances since 1961, WVU has never made the CWS and is just in its second Super Regional this weekend after reaching it for the first time last season.
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No. 6 national seed LSU (46-15) and WVU open the best-of-three Super Regional at 1 p.m. Saturday on ESPN with game two at 5 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2. If a third game is needed, that will be on Monday at a time to be set. The first to win two games advances to Omaha.
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“It’ll be a challenge in every area,” WVU first-year coach Steve Sabins said in a press conference on Tuesday after knocking off host and 11 overall seed Clemson and Kentucky of the SEC twice to win one of 16 NCAA Regionals. “They are a top program in the nation. They’ve been that way for 100 years.”
Well, LSU went 5-9-2 in 1925 under coach Mike Donahue, who was also LSU’s football coach at the time. But since 1986, the Tigers have reached Omaha 19 times and won seven national championships – 1991, ’93, ’96, ’97, 2000, 2009 and 2023.
“They have the best resources, the most NIL (money),” Sabins said. “They have the biggest scholarships, the biggest fan base, the biggest TV deals, awesome network coverage, great coaching staffs, on and on and on.”
While a WVU assistant coach, Sabins had a chance to be a part of the LSU dynasty when LSU hired Jay Johnson away from Arizona after the 2021 season.
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“Really good coach,” Johnson said of Sabins on Tiger Rag Radio this week. “I actually considered bringing him here as one of my assistants when I came to LSU. I wanted someone with ties on this side of the country. They recruit at a high level. They’re very talented. They beat two really good teams – Kentucky twice and Clemson. We’re going to have to play our best to win.”
West Virginia, though, does not have offensive statistics that jump at you or off the aluminum bat. The Mountaineers are No. 178 in the nation in home runs per game at 0.95 with just 55. Kyle West leads WVU in home runs with 10, followed by Jace Rinehart with eight. LSU is not a great homer hitting team, either, but it is No. 31 in the nation with 1.59 a game and 97 overall.
WVU is 52nd in runs scored a game with 7.8, while LSU is right there with it at No. 49 with 7.9 a game. The Mountaineers’ pitching staff does have a very good team earned run average at 4.35 for 23rd in the nation. LSU is at No. 7 with a 3.73 ERA.
Left-hander Griffin Kirn is 5-2 on the season with a 3.13 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 95 innings for WVU. Right-hander Jack Kartsonas is 6-3 with a 2.94 ERA. Right-hander Chase Meyer (9-2, 4.09 ERA) is another starter. And out of the bullpen is right-hander Reese Bassinger (7-1, 4.28 ERA, 5 saves).
“So whether its the pitching staff or the offense, or the base running, you just have to prepare accordingly,” Sabins said.
Asked specifically about LSU starters Anthony Eyanson (10-2, 2.50 ERA, 2 saves, 135 strikeouts for No. 3 in the nation) and Kade Anderson (9-1, 3.28 ERA, 156 strikeouts for No. 2 in the nation), Sabins had little to say.
“Pitching-wise, I haven’t looked at the particular starters,” he said, but that was early in the week. “But we’ll have a game plan and approach, figure out how to beat those guys. That’s what we do with every pitcher. We’ll be figuring out how to beat LSU in a three-game series, hopefully a two-game series.”
If Sabins sounds confident, he should. His team trailed Kentucky, 6-1 and 12-7, on Sunday, but won 13-12 to capture the Clemson Regional. On Saturday, the Mountaineers scored four in the top of the ninth to beat Clemson, 9-6, in front of 6,475. On Friday night, Clemson Regional MVP Armani Guzman’s sacrifice fly gave WVU a walk-off 4-3 win over Kentucky.
“That’s the best three-game set I have ever been a part of as a player or as a coach,” said Sabins, who was an assistant at WVU from 2016-24 before getting the head coaching job and previously played and coached at Oklahoma State.
“It literally had everything you could imagine, including walk-offs, a six-run eighth, heroic plays, performances and at-bats,” he said. “It was the best television you could ever watch for three straight games.”
So, WVU sounds primed for its first dance in Alex Box.
“I was thankful we played at Clemson, because I thought that environment was loud and pretty ruckus,” he said. “And you had those kids in the bullpen (fans) that were like touching our guys warming up. It was a mess.”
West Virginia would have played at 12,000-seat Alex Box Stadium last season in a Super Regional had LSU been able to beat North Carolina to win the NCAA Regional there. WVU then lost the first two at the Super Regional at North Carolina.
As much as Sabins tried to dismiss it, he knows playing LSU at the Box in June with a heat index in the high 90s and a fan atmosphere off the charts will be a new experience for his team and himself.
“Whatever LSU did last year, or the previous year, or their history, or their accolades, none of that stuff matters once you get between the lines,” he said.
LSU has lost only three Super Regionals out of 12 in Alex Box since 2000 after the format began in 1999. Stony Brook beat the Tigers in 2012, Coastal Carolina in 2016 and Florida State in 2019. LSU’s nine Super Regional home wins were over UCLA in 2000, Baylor in 2003, Texas A&M in 2004, California-Irvine in 2008, Rice in 2009, Oklahoma in 2013, Louisiana in 2015, Mississippi State in 2017 and Kentucky in 2023.
“Our guys know they can beat anybody in the country,” Sabins said. “I think by now, when you’re one of the final 16 teams playing in the nation, you’re not trying to convince guys that you can beat somebody.”
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