Views From The Booth: Country Roads Part 2

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(Posted 6-13-26)

Greetings from The Booth!

Ticket punched! The WVU Mountaineers are in the College World Series in Omaha for the first time ever after shellacking Cal Poly in the NCAA Super Regionals by a combined score of 29-3. And as of this writing, the Mounties are in the winner’s bracket after outlasting Troy 7-5. The first-ever win in the CWS was done in typical Mountaineer fashion. WVU jumped out to an early 1-0 lead with a manufactured run, capped off by a straight steal of home by Armani Guzman, who you may very well see in the “bigs” sooner than later. West Virginia ace starting pitcher Chasen Cole did not have his best stuff against a good-hitting Troy team, but reliever and former DII star Ian Korn came to the rescue with a heroic 6 and 2/3 inning effort, giving up only 1 run.

Still, Troy was able to tie things at 5 late in the game with a 2-out, 2-strike home run. Undaunted, WVU came up with the key hit, a 2-run Tyrus Hall single in the bottom of the 8th, and the bullpen shut the door on the Trojans in the ninth. Cue Country Roads, as Omaha erupted in song!

Now it’s on to the winner’s bracket, where West Virginia will face North Carolina on Sunday night at 6. It was the Tar Heels who eliminated WVU from the Super Regionals several years ago, so there is some unfinished business for the Mountaineers, who are now assured at least two more games in the CWS.

This West Virgina team has captured the imagination of the entire nation, but let me assure you, this is not a “Cinderella Story.” These Mounties can hit, pitch, run, and play defense. Their aggressive nature on the basepaths can pressure opposing defenses into mistakes, they have one of the best pitching staffs in the country, and they can hit in the clutch. And, we now have the 2026 NCBWA Coach of the Year in Steve Sabins. By now, everyone knows about the iconic John Denver song, “Randy’s Ridge” (named after former coach Randy Mazey, who got the WVU Baseball program off of life-support in 2013), and pepperoni rolls. But this is a talented baseball team that has been to the NCAA Super Regionals three years in a row. They are more than capable of bringing a “Natty” back to the Mountain State.

The best thing about this incredible run by WVU Baseball is the pride that we now have as West Virginians. For too long, we have endured the jokes about being barefoot, toothless, and working in the coal mines (nothing wrong with the latter, by the way). Every football season, we are reminded about “13-9,” the infamous loss to hated Pitt that cost us a possible national championship in 2007. Things have not gone well on and off the basketball court in recent years, either. As Mountaineers, we are used to getting our hearts broken time after time.

The famous “You Got Pittsnogled” post-season basketball run and the Pat White football years gave us hope. With WVU Baseball, we’ve got more than that. We’ve got a pretty damn good team.

Let’s GO!

RW

 

Views From The Booth:

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(Posted 6-2-26)

Greetings from The Booth!

Take Me Home, Country Roads!

That great song echoed through the hills and hollows of West Virginia last night after WVU’s 6-5 walk-off baseball win over Kentucky in the NCAA Regional Championship game in Morgantown. A capacity crowd of 4000 at the Kendrick Family Ballpark swayed arm-in-arm and sang John Denver’s classic in unison as the Mountaineers lined up and joined in. It was a fitting serenade to a team that personifies the Mountain State: tough, gritty, resilient.

Sweeter still was the fact that the Regional Championship came at the expense of Kentucky. This was not just the Mountaineers versus the Wildcats. This was the Hatfields and the McCoys. It was WVU that knocked Kentucky out of last year’s Regionals with a 13-12 come-from-behind win, and as the saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt.” these two teams played each other 3 time this past weekend, with the Wildcats putting the Mounties on the brink of elimination with a Saturday win over WVU. West Virginia, needing to win out, posted a 10-5 win over Wake Forest Sunday afternoon, followed by an improbable win over the Cats on Sunday evening, setting up last night’s winner-take-all final.

WVU seemed to be cruising to the Super Regional, leading 5-1 in the eighth. Not so fast. The Wildcats rallied to tie things at 5 and had several chances to take the lead and crush the hopes of an entire state. Gutsy relief efforts from Chansen Cole and Dawson Montesa (who threw 122 pitches on Sunday) kept things tied, setting things up for Armani Guzman, who’s game winning single in the bottom of the 10th sent the home crowd into a frenzy, and his team to its third straight Super Regional.

Folks, there’s a lot of crap going on in college sports these days. The transfer portal and NIL have made the landscape almost unrecognizable and smarmy. Many college athletes, especially in football and basketball, seem like mercenaries, some playing for a different team every year. In the case of WVU, the basketball roster is undergoing a complete turnover headed into the 2026-27 season. There’s no point latching on to a superstar–they’ll be gone next year, as they chase the almighty dollar. Don’t get me wrong. On a college football Saturday, I’m still rooting for the Old Gold and Blue. But it doesn’t feel the same. A season like 2007, when WVU was one bad loss to Pitt away from playing for a college football National Championship, will never happen again in my lifetime. The blueblood programs have the money, and that’s where the top players are going to go.

But last night in Morgantown, we were brought back to a simpler time in college sports. Guzman, a New York native, sang “Country Roads” even as he was being interviewed by ESPN (and knew all the words). Fans showered the players with love, and it was reciprocated by young men from all parts of the country who last night were West Virginians through and through.

It was “Almost Heaven.”

Until the next visit from The Booth…LET’S GO!

RW