The West Virginia Mountaineers (46-16) fell to the North Carolina Tarheels (53-12-1) Sunday night 5-2 in the second game of the College World Series.

With a little luck, North Carolina scratched a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. Junior Jake Schaffner hit a leadoff single back up the middle before junior Owen Hall rolled a single through the left side. Then, on the first pitch delivered junior Macon Winslow was awarded first base after it was ruled the ball hit his foot. Despite no evidence on replay, he remained at first.

West Virginia starting pitcher Maxx Yehl walked in the first run and junior Erik Paulsen brought in a run with a slow high chopper towards first for a 2-0 lead.

The Mountaineers pulled within a run in the third after senior Ben Lumsden singled to right field and advanced to second on a ground ball from junior Tyrus Hall. Then, junior Armani Guzman drove an RBI single to centerfield.

West Virginia evened the game in the fourth when senior Sean Smith received a leadoff walk and senior Matt Graveline singled to right centerfield, placing runners at the corners before sophomore Matt Ineich hit into a double play, but brought in the tying run.

In the seventh, the Tarheels took advantage of the West Virginia miscues to take the lead. An error from Hall at third put the leadoff hitter aboard. Then, with one out, a bobble ball from senior second baseman Brodie Kresser on a potential inning ending double play, put two aboard before junior Gavin Gallaher drove a two-RBI triple to right centerfield. Hull followed with a chopper over the mound for an RBI single before Yehl could get out of the frame as UNC held a 5-2 advantage.

Yehl took the mound in the eight and after giving up the eighth hit of the night, WVU head coach Steve Sabins turned to senior Reese Bassinger. The redshirt junior finished the night with seven strikeouts and was credited with two earned runs.

After North Carolina sophomore starting pitcher Ryan Lynch was removed in the fifth, sophomore Walker McDuffie tossed 4.2 scoreless innings before Ineich was issued a one-out walk and Kresser followed with a single to bring the tying run to the plate. UNC head coach Scott Forbes handed the ball to freshman right-hander Caden Glauber

Glauber closed the door with a pair of strikeouts as the Tarheels held on for the 5-2 decision.

West Virginia will face Troy on Tuesday in an elimination game. The first pitch is set for 2:00 p.m. EST and the action will be televised on ESPN.

OMAHA, Neb. — A pair of Division II transfers toed the rubber to start Friday’s Men’s College World Series opener between West Virginia and Troy.

It was the one that came on in relief, however, who made the biggest impact in the Mountaineers’ 7-5 victory over the Trojans at Charles Schwab Field.

Ian Korn spelled Chansen Cole with two outs in the third inning and the Trojans leading 4-3 at the time, having tagged Cole for seven hits across the last 10 batters he faced.

“We saw Chansen Cole get hit a little bit for basically the first time all season,” WVU coach Steve Sabins said.

Korn, who spent the previous four seasons at Seton Hill, would go on to throw six innings of one-run ball, allowing only two hits to go with four strikeouts and three walks as he improved to 6-1 this season. 

“What Ian Korn did in that game to stabilize it to go six innings, two hits,” Sabins said, “was nothing short of miraculous.”

Jabe Boroff, the first batter Korn faced, drew a walk, and the right-hander threw 12 balls to 11 strikes over his first 23 pitches.

From that point forward, he peppered the zone on a consistent basis through the rest of an outing that featured 51 of 79 pitches for strikes.

“I was throwing some more cutters than usual,” Korn said. “Slider wasn’t working. We threw some more curveballs. So we were mixing up a little more than usual, kind of against the scouting report they probably had. So our goal was just to go out there and throw strikes, and that’s what I did.”

Mixing pitches to keep the Trojans off balance as he best he could made Korn’s outing especially effective.

“I saw every single one of his pitches,” said Troy left fielder and No. 6 hitter Drew Nelson. “I think he had five, and I saw all five. Being able to mix and match and attack the strike zone like he did, that’s how you succeed.”

The six innings from Korn matched his lengthiest outing as a Mountaineer, tying the 18 outs recorded on May 14 against TCU in one of his three starts this season.

Korn has been used in relief 20 times in 2026, but has thrived in any role.

For the year, he has a 2.95 earned-run average over 76.1 innings with 67 strikeouts and only 13 walks.

The Mountaineers are 18-5 in games Korn has appeared in.

After retiring the first two Trojans in the ninth, Korn was within one out of finishing off the victory.

He then walked Blake Cavill and Sabins elected to replace Korn with left-hander Ben McDougal with Jimmy Janicki at the plate representing the tying run. Janicki had connected for a solo home run in the seventh inning that tied the game at 5, and the WVU head coach didn’t like the idea of Troy’s top hitter seeing Korn for a third time after he’d walked on four pitches and blasted the long ball in his previous two plate appearances.

“Matchup wise, we just believed that left-handed was better against Janicki in that situation,” Sabins said. “Korn was kind of cruising, and so we knew that Korn was going to face the first three hitters [of the ninth inning], and if it got to Janicki, we were going to go to McDougal. But after he clips off two quick outs, then it’s a walk, you’re like, damn, I wish we weren’t in that spot, right. Because the guy’s throwing strikes and handling the moment. And so there’s always that unknown when you bring somebody out of the bullpen in the big moment.

“With McDougal, he’s so convicted and he’s been in those moments so many times. At the end of the day, what I told myself is you’re either playing to win or you’re playing to lose essentially. So you’ve got to play to win, because it’s the right matchup with the right kid and the extra bases, right versus left, is completely different. He’s been a different hitter this year versus left-handed fastball. So we just had to go rip the Band-Aid off and do that.”