West Virginia
Morgantown Regional Breakdown: Schedule, How to Watch, Bracket Preview
The Road to Omaha begins in Morgantown for West Virginia, Wake Forest, Kentucky, and Binghamton, and in less than 48 hours, regional play will officially be underway.
Below is a look at the weekend schedule, along with a sneak peek at each team heading into the tournament.
Schedule + How to Watch
Friday, May 29th
Game 1: No. 2 Wake Forest vs. No. 3 Kentucky, 12 p.m. ET on ESPN2
Game 2: No. 1 West Virginia vs. No. 4 Binghamton, 5 p.m. ET on ESPN+
Saturday, May 30th
Game 3: TBD
Game 4: TBD
Sunday, May 31st
Game 5: TBD
Game 6: TBD
Monday, June 1st
Game 7: If necessary
Bracket Breakdown
No. 1 West Virginia (39-14)
The Mountaineers came within a game of defending their Big 12 regular season crown. The opportunity was made possible by shockingly sweeping Kansas on the road, closing the gap to just one game heading into the final weekend. They built on that momentum with a strong showing in the Big 12 tournament, beating Kansas State and Arizona State en route to the championship game.
Pitching and defense are West Virginia’s calling card. Maxx Yehl (Big 12 Pitcher of the Year), Chansen Cole, and Ian Korn finished one, two, three in the league in ERA. To couple that great starting pitching, WVU ended the season with the best fielding percentage in the league (.980).
No. 2 Wake Forest (38-19)
The Demon Deacons have a potent offense that is powered by driving the ball into the gaps and over the fence. Eight players on their roster have a slugging percentage north of .450, three of which are over .600 — Luke Costello, Dalton Wentz, and Kade Lewis.
The pitching staff has been up and down throughout the year, with free passes and the long ball being the biggest issues. Wake finished the year fourth in the ACC in walks (266) and sixth in home runs allowed (71). When they’re not giving up the big one, they do a pretty good job of creating weak contact, resulting in an opponents batting average of .227.
No. 3 Kentucky (31-21)
A lot of people were surprised to see Kentucky have its name called on Monday, considering they lost eight of their 10 series in SEC play. Even they may have been a little surprised, so they could be a dangerous team in the fact that they are really playing with house money here.
The Wildcats are built very similarly to West Virginia offensively. They don’t have a ton of power, so they have to rely on stringing a bunch of hits and quality at-bats together, in addition to stealing bases. Kentucky stole 122 bags this season, which is 27 more than the Mountaineers. Ethan Hindle (11 HR) is the only Wildcat to have hit double-digit homers this season.
No. 4 Binghamton (31-20)
Offensively, the Bearcats do a really good job of working the count, fighting off pitches, and drawing walks. They walked 267 times this season, which would have ranked sixth in the Big 12, for what it’s worth. For them to have any success in this region, they are going to have to drive up pitch counts and execute when they do get runners in scoring position. Very little pop and speed in this lineup.
Pitching could be very problematic for Binghamton against these power conference teams, considering their staff finished the year with a 6.18 ERA and did not play a single game against a power conference foe. Opponents hit .274 off of them collectively.
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West Virginia may have come up empty-handed in two tries against North Carolina in the College World Series, but they earned the respect of their head coach, Scott Forbes, who was incredibly complimentary of the Mountaineers following Wednesday’s game.
“I want to congratulate West Virginia. A heck of a team, a heck of a run,” he opened his postgame press conference with. “They are very well coached. They just play the game the right way. It’s a credit to their coaching staff. They come at you a lot of ways. A lot of speed, deep pitching staff, so we really had to work in those two games to beat them. I’ve been in their shoes, and I know what that feels like, and it’s a stinker. But man, they got a lot to be proud of, and they should be extremely proud of how they represented their university.”
The culture at WVU is as strong as it gets
Multiple times this season, West Virginia looked like they were well on their way to a loss and were rewarded with a win because they never stopped playing hard. Everyone thinks of the two games against Kentucky in the Morgantown Regional, and rightfully so, but they also came back to win after trailing by eight against UCF and after trailing by five to BYU.
For a moment, there was a belief that the magical moment was going to come again during Wednesday’s game against Forbes’ Tar Heels. With two outs in the 7th and trailing 12-1, Armani Guzman busted his tail down the first base line to beat out a grounder to short. It ultimately led to a five-run inning for the Mountaineers, all of a sudden turning a laugher into a semi-interesting game. Gavin Kelly hit a solo home run in the 8th to make it a five-run deficit, and in the ninth, Ben Lumsden just missed a three-run shot that would have really put pressure on North Carolina, even with two outs.
To have your team still playing hard when trailing by 11 with their season likely about to come to an end, it says a lot about the character of this group, but also how deeply ingrained the culture is at WVU. There’s a reason this program has turned the corner over the last 14 or so years and is continuing to trend up. They’ve had the right people in place leading it.
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West Virginia
Proposed 107.5-mile transmission line could leave W.Va. ratepayers on hook for $440M-$900M
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — A 107.5-mile transmission line project has been proposed, the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link, which would cut through parts of West Virginia to ultimately help power Virginia’s data center hub since there is not enough generation locally to serve them.
“Virginia gets the power and West Virginia gets the towers,” Del Chris Anders said. “What they did is they look west and said, hey, we’ll just use West Virginia but we’ll get this power and we’ll run this big extension cord. I’m all for exporting power from West Virginia. We are a power production state, but I’m not going to do so out of the wallets of West Virginians and allowing their property to be taken.”
During the 2026 legislative session, lawmakers put a bill on the table which was aimed at giving the state access to utilize these lines, but nothing made it to the finish line.
“We said, ‘Okay, if you’re going to run them through, you have to drop substations in West Virginia and by the way, West Virginia ratepayers will only pay for the amount of energy that stays within our state,’” Anders said.
A second line is also up for discussion. Valley Link Transmission hasn’t finalized any routes yet, but it would consist of 260 miles of transmission line and would add two substations between Frederick County, Maryland, and Putnam County.
With both of these lines, the main concern surrounding the proposals is who exactly is expected to foot the bill and whether or not it will ultimately fall back on West Virginia ratepayers.
“We’re going to be on the hook for anywhere between $440 million to over $900 million on both lines,” Anders said.
Lawmakers said those price tags continue to increase.
“At least for the MARL line, they went back to the grid operator, PJM, and said, ‘It’s going to cost significantly more money than it originally thought. Those estimates of the cost to West Virginia ratepayers are only going to go up,’” Del. Evan Hansen said.
These projects have gained bipartisan opposition. This is all beginning when representatives for these energy companies brought these proposals to lawmakers in January, noting that these lines would strengthen the entire grid.
But many lawmakers were not convinced, asking why they should support it if West Virginia has no direct benefit.
“It would increase our electric rates and private property owners might be faced with giving up their land or having their property values decline,” Hansen said.
It’s not only state officials voicing opposition. Public hearings have been held in the northern counties where community members shared their concerns with these projects that could go right through their backyards.
“We did hear from construction workers and electrical workers about the jobs, but otherwise it was uniformly against the construction of the project,” Hansen said.
An evidentiary hearing for MARL’s permit application will be held by the Public Service Commission on Oct. 26.
One of the beautiful things about the College World Series: Some teams seem destined to find their way back to each other.
After North Carolina sent West Virginia to the loser’s bracket on Day 3 in Omaha, the Mountaineers defeated Troy to make it to the national semifinals. Now they need two wins over a North Carolina team that has outlasted its opponents to go 2-0 to date in order to make the championship series in their first CWS appearance.
Watch West Virginia-UNC baseball live with Fubo (free trial)
North Carolina has played a very similar game twice thus far in its return to Omaha, with it remaining close before breaking it open late in the game. With that in mind, West Virginia may try to jump on Tar Heels pitching early in order to combat a team that has made a living with long, patient trips to the plate.
North Carolina is looking for its first ever College World Series win and first appearance since it was the runner-up in back-to-back seasons in 2006 and 2007. Led by Owen Hull and Jake Schaffner, the Tar Heels are looking to wrap up their side of the bracket and look ahead either Oklahoma or Georgia/Texas.
USA TODAY Sports is providing live updates, scores and highlights from the game. Follow along here:
WVU vs UNC baseball College World Series live score
This section will be updated.
| TEAMS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | F |
| UNC | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| WVU | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
West Virginia vs North Carolina baseball College World Series live updates
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What TV channel is West Virginia vs North Carolina College World Series on today?
ESPN will air the Mountaineers-Tar Heels game. Streaming options include the ESPN app (with a cable login) and Fubo, which offers a free trial to potential subscribers.
Stream CWS games live with Fubo (free trial)
WVU vs UNC baseball College World Series start time today
- Date: Wednesday, June 17
- Time: 2 p.m. Et | 1 p.m. CT
- Location: Charles Schwab Field Omaha (Ohama, Nebraska)
First pitch for West Virginia and North Carolina’s double elimination game is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET from Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
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