West Virginia advances to first Men's College World Series in program history, defeating Cal Poly in NCAA super regionals

West Virginia is going to its first Men's College World Series in program history after the Mountaineers finished off a sweep of Cal Poly in the NCAA tournament super regionals at Morgantown, West Virginia.

The No. 16 Mountaineers finished off the Mustangs and clinched a trip to Omaha with a 17-1 win Saturday. Ben Lumsden hit 3-for-5 with two home runs and five RBI, while Maxx Yehl allowed one run over five innings with four strikeouts to lead West Virginia.

Cal Poly took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Ryan Tayman sacrifice fly that scored Nate Castellon. That would be the only run the Mustangs scored Saturday.

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West Virginia aggressively seized the lead in the second inning, first scoring when Matthew Graveline stole home. He led off the frame with a double, then stole third during a five-pitch walk to Matt Ineich. Ineich stole second base, and as Tayman tried to throw him out, Graveline dashed for home.

Following a walk to Brodie Kresser, Cal Poly starter Carson Turnquist then served up back-to-back home runs to Lumsden and Tyrus Hall for a 5-1 Mountaineers lead.

After Turnquist hit Armani Guzman with a pitch, Chris Downs took over for Cal Poly but walked Gavin Kelly and gave up an RBI single to Sean Smith. Batting for the second time in the inning, Graveline drove Kelly in with a groundout to go ahead 7-1.

West Virginia increased its lead to 10-1 in the third on a two-run homer by Guzman and RBI single from Paul Schoenfeld. Lumsden hit his second home run of the game in the fourth, a two-run shot that increased the Mountaineers' lead to 12-1.

Cal Poly fell behind 14-1 in the fifth on a leadoff homer by Kelly and RBI groundout from Graveline. West Virginia added two more runs in the sixth on a single by Guzman and groundout from Schoenfeld.

The Mountaineers scored their final run of the game in the seventh when Graveline stole home again on the tail end of another double-steal with Ineich stealing second base. West Virginia stole seven bases for the day.

Though they had an enormous lead to work with, David Hagen, Ian Korn and Ben McDougal finished out the game with four scoreless innings for the Mountaineers, allowing three hits.

West Virginia finished second in the Big 12 at 21-9 (44-12 overall). But after losing in the super regionals to North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2024 and to LSU at Baton Rouge last season, the Mountaineers hosted a series and took full advantage against Big West co-champions Cal Poly, winning their two games by a combined score of 29-3.

The Mountaineers have advanced to the MCWS in Steve Savins' second season as head coach. He was a longtime assistant under Randy Mazey, who coached in Morgantown for 12 seasons.

Two first-timers to face off in MCWS

West Virginia will face another first-time visitor to the MCWS in Troy. In their fifth season under head coach Skylar Meade, the Trojans finished fifth in the Sun Belt conference at 17-13 (32-20 overall).

Qualifying for the NCAA tournament as an at-large team, Troy defeated Florida at the Gainesville regional and hosted a super regional, defeating Little Rock 12-2 and 7-2.