West Virginia's bullpen struggles brings season to a disappointing end in Super Regional

West Virginia baseball's historic season has come to an end.

The Mountaineers advanced to their second straight NCAA Super Regional, but found themselves matched up against an ultra-talented LSU team. WVU bowed out of the NCAA Tournament in Baton Rouge with a 12-5 loss to the Tigers late on Sunday night. This came after LSU ran away with Game One of the Super Regional by a final score of 16-9 on Saturday. The Mountaineers needed to win Game Two on Sunday to force a winner-take-all game on Monday to earn a trip to Omaha for the College World Series, but couldn't make it happen.

In a wildly successful season where the losses often felt defined by bullpen struggles, it was again poor pitching --combined with poor defense -- that gave the Tigers numerous opportunities in the series, and they capitalized on most of those chances.

In Game One, Mountaineer walked eight batters and racked up five hit by pitches (HBP), and in Game Two walked nine batters while tallying three more HBPs. West Virginia gave up 18 total hits over the two contests -- including four home runs and three doubles -- and cycled through 10 pitchers over the course of 17 innings on the weekend.

The cause wasn't helped defensively, as West Virginia tallied four errors through the two games -- including three in Game Two. The bats were hot enough -- the Mountaineers outhit LSU 11-8 in Game One and managed six more in Game Two -- but the pitching staff never gave the offense much of an opportunity to matter.

It's a disappointing end to an otherwise successful season in Head Coach Steve Sabins’ first year leading the program. WVU set a program record with 44 wins and captured their second overall and first-ever outright regular-season Big 12 title, and earned their third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. It was the first time the program has made three straight tournament appearances since the 1960s, and was one of a handful of programs to earn back-to-back trips to the Super Regional over the past two seasons.

Now it is time to turn the focus on the 2026 season and maintain the current roster while bringing some extra talent. There is some speculation that starting catcher Logan Sauve could be drafted and start his professional career following his junior season. Starting Friday night pitcher Griffin Kirn has used all of his eligibility. There are certainly holes to be filled if Sabins and company want to make another deep postseason push in 2026.