Sauve

Playing in Florida was needed . . . and starting the 2025 season against the Dolphins also proved to be a prosperous move for the Mountaineers.

West Virginia swept the Floridians in three games — two of them low-run affairs, just the kind of games the Mountaineers will need in the Big 12 Conference if they are to thrive in the league that now has 15 schools. Iowa State no longer has a baseball team.

After seeing Jacksonville, Sabins’ team moved to Nashville, Tenn. where it swept another three games against Lipscomb University, winning by scores of 5-4, 5-0, and 4-2.

The non-conference competition remains most manageable through March 11, with Ohio coming to Morgantown for the home opener this past Wednesday and then a four-game road trip, to play Queens University of Charlotte all around the state of North Carolina.

King

After Queens, the Mountaineers come back home to play Kennesaw State University (Georgia) in a three-game series, before another non-conference game at home against Towson University. That makes 15 games against competition that won’t rival those teams seen in the Big 12.

When the well-paved, non-conference road has been traveled, the Big 12 schedule will begin.

There are 30 games scheduled against 10 different teams.

Sprinkled in are the five non-conference foes James Madison, Marshall, Ohio State, Pitt and Penn State. All those games will be on mid-week days.

The Mountaineers will open their Big 12 schedule on the road against Oklahoma State University on March 14.

Marot

The other conference games scheduled are against Arizona, Brigham Young, Utah, Houston, Cincinnati, Central Florida, Texas Tech, Kansas State and Kansas. It would appear the Mountaineers will flourish or flounder because of their pitching. Once the conference games begin, the team’s offense won’t be able to supply a constant stream of runs, so the pitching staff will have to be known as the “low-run boys,” if success is to be found.

The pitchers Sabins has used most so far are Carson Estridge, Griffin Kirn, Gavin Van Kempen and Bobby Porco, with Reese Bassinger serving as the closer where he already has three saves through Feb. 24.

The hitters that could carry much of the offensive load are infielder Brodie Kresser, outfielder Skylar King, outfielder Michael Perazza, catcher Logan Sauve and Alex Marot.

To be successful, this team needs to win the one-run and two-run games, become known for their leak-proof overall defense, take full advantage of the walks, hit batsmen and stolen bases they manage and become genuinely team-minded like few teams do.

The conference tournament finally comes from May 21-24 and will take place in Arlington, Tex.

Perazza

Runs will need to be scratched out in conference games. This is a league that values baseball and the teams will not be broken by anything but the best of fundamentally sound performances.

Kresser