West Virginia put their recent late-game struggles to bed on Friday against Kentucky in the first game of the Clemson Regional.

The Mountaineers trailed 3-0 early on, before they tied the game in the sixth, and then ended up walking off the Wildcats on a sacrifice-fly from Armani Guzman, as WVU won 4-3.

Entering this weekend, the Mountaineers had gone 2-7 in their last nine games, with many of those losses coming on late-inning collapses. West Virginia reversed that fortune, as they didn’t allow a run after the fourth inning, and held on in the ninth, despite an error to start the inning.

“The last three weeks have been choppy. We had played okay baseball down the stretch, so to come into this environment on the biggest stage and possibly play our best game in the biggest moment and also get our first walk-off of the season on the road is really special. I think we have the most road wins in the country, and so it’s fitting for this team to come on the road and to be able to get their first walk-off,” West Virginia head coach Steve Sabins said.

Sabins changed around WVU’s lineup on Friday, with one of the moves being the change of Armani Guzman to start at third base. This was only his third start since April 4th, but he came up big for Sabins and company as he went 2-for-3 and had the game-winning at-bat.

The adversity WVU has gone through recently prepared them for this moment, Sabins said. WVU blew leads to Pitt and Kansas State on the road, before getting swept by Kansas in the final weekend of the season.

“They’ve been this way. They’ve been resilient. There’s certain moments throughout the season where you can see growth and and without some struggle or adversity, you don’t ever have that opportunity to see that, and so we’ve won very consistently for a really, really long time,” Sabins said.

The reason WVU isn’t a host this weekend is because of their late-season losses, but Sabins says those lessons learned helped his team learn the importance of winning, something that paid dividends on Friday.

“I think we were three-quarters of the way through the season, and we had the best winning percentage in the country, and so although that was wonderful and allowed us to play here today, it probably didn’t allow for a lot of growth throughout the season of battling back and me needing to be creative with some lineups and change some things and feel in the heat.

“Over the course of the last two or three weeks, I think we had been a little bit stale, and so I think that staleness resulted in a little bit of a fire in our guys and from me to try to make sure that we’re getting the right players in the right positions to be successful because ultimately, that’s my responsibility. So I think through those hard times, you have an opportunity to do something special, and so for these kids to show up here on this day and to have the walk-off win is certainly special for our program, and hopefully that’s kind of the next chapter of our season,” Sabins said.

West Virginia looks to have their magical moment propel them through the regional as they play in the 1-0 game on Saturday night.

West Virginia answered two of the biggest remaining questions on the basketball roster without adding a single new player into the equation.

That’s because the Mountaineers got the news that two of their key players in transfers Treysen Eaglestaff and Brenen Lorient were pulling out of the NBA Draft process.

It’s not necessarily a major surprise considering that it was the likely outcome all along but it solidifies what head coach Ross Hodge has been able to put together to date.

Eaglestaff was one of the more highly recruited players added to the roster after coming off a standout season at North Dakota. There he averaged 18.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 41.6-percent from the field and 35.9-percent from three.

The North Dakota native initially committed to South Carolina after entering the transfer portal but had a number of high-level options after opening things up, including BYU, Gonzaga and several others before taking an official visit to Morgantown and picking the Mountaineers.

Eaglestaff is expected to be a major piece to the roster build and with one year left will have the opportunity to showcase what he can do within the Big 12 Conference. He has the ability to be used on or off the ball and is going to be counted on to put the ball in the basket.

Lorient was another major building block for Hodge and company, considering the success that he had during last season at North Texas. The forward blossomed for the Mean Green last seaso,n earning American Athletic Conference first-team all-league and Sixth Man of the Year honors.

Lorient averaged 11.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and over 1.1 blocks per game across 24.8 minutes per game. He shot 57-percent from the field and 47.8-percent from three on 23 attempts. He entered the transfer portal shortly after Hodge left the program with a no-contact tag and elected to follow him to Morgantown while exploring the NBA Draft process.

Now, Lorient will look to make the most of his final season at West Virginia by giving the program an athletic forward at the four spot who has the possibility to expand his game even further.

With those two major building blocks now solidly in the fold, West Virginia has ten roster spots accounted for heading into the season but still will look to put the finishing touches on the group. The Mountaineers are still searching for at least another big man as well as at least one guard and perhaps another wing that can put pressure on the basket at a minimum.

It’s a complete roster rebuild for basically the second consecutive year, but the pieces are now officially sliding into place for Hodge and company to make the most of it.

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — Fifteen West Virginia high school juniors have been named finalists in the West Virginia Scholar Program and are in the running for a full-ride scholarship to West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Online voting begins June 9 and will end June 18. The winners will be announced at a luncheon at Wesleyan in late June.

The 2025 WV Scholar Finalists:

Emily Lewis – Ripley High School

Lucas Raney – Woodrow Wilson High School

Magdalyn Smith – Spring Mills High School

Isabella Hersey – Marion County Technical Center

Trey Mcdonough – Doddridge County High School

Andrew Harris – Elkins High School

Madeline Steele – St. Mary’s High School

Ladora Cutright – Buckhannon-Upshur High School

Olivia Edwards – Ripley High School

Wyatt Braham (pronounced BRAM) – Preston High School 

Bethany Archer – Lewis – Bridgeport High School

Rhubarb (Rhuby) Ronan – Huntington High School

Owen Herrick – Magnolia High School

Gabrielle Saurino – Preston High School

Logan Vanfosson – Greenbrier East High School

West Virginia Wesleyan Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing John Waltz said the program has changed many lives over the course of 18 years.

“We have been doing this long enough now that there are winners of this program who are doctors, lawyers and other things right in our state, right in our community. So, it has been amazing to see these folks make this kind of impact.” said Waltz. “It really makes the program worthwhile.”

The winner of the scholarship will receive four years of tuition, room and board.

First and second runners-up will also receive scholarships awards.

In addition to WVWC and MetroNews, the West Virginia Scholar Program is sponsored by Greer Industries, Friends of Coal, West Virginia Hospital Association, the West Virginia Farm Bureau and ZMM Architects & Engineers.