Baseball is a sport of endurance, mythos, and skill. Throughout the 2025 season, the West Virginia Mountaineers found almost every way to win games but also several unique ways to lose them. Sometimes, it was luck, and often, it was calculated, which is worth looking into. Read more: The Ups and Downs of the Historic 2025 WVU Baseball Team.w
Early On
The 2025 Mountaineers saw minimal resistance to their reign of terror over early non-conference opponents, starting 13-0 before finally falling at home to Kennesaw State. WVU started 15-1 before beginning Big 12 Conference play, which was supposed to get underway with a three-game visit at Oklahoma State.
First Signs of the Abnormal
Upon arrival to Stillwater, Oklahoma, severe weather decided to put a hold on the Mountaineers’ initial Big 12 series, as wildfires and high winds postponed the first two contests indefinitely. These games were never played. West Virginia took the lone game that was able to be played on the road trip, 8-6.
After two wins over JMU in midweek action, WVU welcomed the Arizona Wildcats as the first Big 12 visitors into Kendrick Family Ballpark for the first time this season.
The first game of the series was nothing short of a marathon, going a full 16 innings and lasting over five and a half hours. The Mountaineers tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings, and neither team would score again until Arizona plated two runs in the top of the 16th. WVU was unable to respond and fell 6-4. Despite taking game two, West Virginia dropped the series, the first time the Mountaineers lost one all season through the first 22 games.
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The old gold and blue wrapped up the March slate with a shutout win over in-state rival, Marshall, and another series win against BYU. After the Cougars embarrassed WVU 14-5 in game one, the Mountaineers casually combined to score 39 runs in games two and three.
The (Almost) Immaculate April
Heading into April, WVU held a record of 22-4 and had torn through every team on the schedule at least once. The Mountaineers added to their impressive resume by going 15-2 in April, with both losses coming in non-conference action.
Lucky wins against the likes of Cincinnati on a toss-up call at the plate, among others, favored WVU on their way to an undefeated month of Big 12 play.
A 3-2 loss at Penn State on April 22nd seemed to be a normal midweek loss, but the final game against Marshall on April 30th exposed some of the underlying weaknesses of an otherwise dominant WVU club.
Trouble in the Water
In front of a crowd of 9,639 fans, WVU faced off against the Thundering Herd at GoMart Ballpark in Charleston. Despite taking the first two games of the 2025 series between the two universities, WVU fell apart late in the capital city showdown, allowing Marshall to walk it off in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a throwing error. West Virginia had another crucial error earlier in the game, and Marshall took a 7-6 victory over the heavily favored Mountaineers.
Despite midweek struggles, WVU was plowing through Big 12 competition. The Mountaineers took another series win over Texas Tech to kick off the final month of the regular season, winning two of three against the Red Raiders.
The non-conference slate of 2025 opponents wrapped up in early May in the second edition of the Backyard Brawl for the season, and this is when the cracks began to form on the surface. Leading 9-5 going into the bottom of the ninth inning in Pittsburgh, the Mountaineers allowed five runs to get walked off, again, by a non-conference rival.
The Final Six of the Regular Season
Despite heartbreaking losses against Penn State, Marshall, and Pitt, WVU held a steady lead in the Big 12 standings. Conference play is what matters most, after all. The final two series of the regular season included a road trip to Kansas State and a final home series versus the Kansas Jayhawks.
The recent meltdowns unfortunately carried over to these final six games, with KSU mounting an even bigger comeback than Pitt did in the game prior. Leading 7-2 going into the bottom of the ninth, WVU allowed six runs and fell 8-7. The Mountaineers took game two before allowing 14 runs in game three to lose just their second series of the entire season.
To keep things short, Kansas came in a week later and decimated a weakened West Virginia squad, sweeping the Mountaineers at Kendrick Family Ballpark. Despite the poor performance late in the season, the Mountaineers did enough to wrap up a regular-season Big 12 Championship. The chances of hosting a Regional round, on the other hand, were all but gone.
An Interesting Postseason
With the top seed in the conference tournament, WVU benefited from having a first-round bye. A quarterfinal win over Cincinnati was a sight for sore eyes across the Mountaineer faithful, but a crushing 12-1 semifinal loss to eventual tournament champion, Arizona, stopped WVU in its tracks.
The Mountaineers earned the #2 seed in the Clemson Regional and, against all odds, won all three games in the grandest of fashions to score a date against the powerhouse that is LSU. Amid questionable roster decisions, falling behind early, and subpar pitching performances, the 2025 Mountaineers regained their confidence and left South Carolina as regional champions.
While the Super Regional against LSU was a tough pill to swallow for players, coaches, and fans alike, the 2025 West Virginia Mountaineers exceeded all expectations once again and finished the campaign with an impressive record of 44-16. Say what you will, but this team will forever be remembered among the greats in a storied program.
“But let’s hope it’s not just luck and strange, a one-off peaceful golden age, that’s a dark thought in the dark,” says David Gilmour, longtime Pink Floyd songwriter and frontman, in his most recent solo venture. May everyone in Mountaineer country remember these words and keep their spirits up after a season that is as close to a “golden age” as this program has seen in decades.
Lucky or Just Plain Strange? The Ups and Downs of the Historic 2025 WVU Baseball Team
