Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Mountaineers and Jayhawks to Step Into the National Spotlight For Key Weekend Series
May 06, 2026 12:20 PM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There will be lots of eyes watching the ESPN+ broadcasts of West Virginia's Big 12 Conference series at Kansas this weekend.
As far as key college baseball games go, the three-game set at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, Kansas, beginning this Friday night probably comes in at 1-A on the list.
Mike Montoro, the executive associate director of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), vote tabulator of its Top 25 Poll and one of the presenters of the Dick Howser Award at the College World Series each year, has the three-game series at the top of his list, and not just because West Virginia University is his employer.
Others on his radar screen this weekend include Auburn-Mississippi State, Texas A&M-Ole Miss and Oklahoma-Arkansas in the SEC; Oregon-UCLA in the Big Ten and Arizona State-Oklahoma State in the Big 12.
In Lawrence, Kansas is having an historic campaign under fourth-year coach Dan Fitzgerald. The ninth-ranked Jayhawks are in college baseball's top 10 for the first time in school history with a 37-12 overall record and are in line for one of 16 NCAA Tournament regional host sites that will be announced later this month.
Fitzgerald's baseball pedigree includes playing careers at St. Thomas and Wisconsin-River Falls before advancing through the junior college coaching ranks during the last decade. He became Dallas Baptist's recruiting coordinator in 2013, and parlayed success there into a similar role at LSU in 2022.
After his hiring at Kansas in 2023, he had KU in the NCAA Tournament regionals in 2025 for the first time in 11 years. Over the last two seasons, Fitzgerald's Jayhawks have won 80 of 109 games, including an impressive 40-14 mark in Big 12 play.
At 20-4 this year, Kansas has a commanding four-game lead over 16-8 West Virginia and Arizona State in the Big 12 standings with six regular season contests remaining.
So, why has Kansas been so good recently?
According to AI, it is because of a "selfless winning culture" that Fitzgerald has developed focusing on a "one-pitch-at-a-time" approach by his players. Kansas has an All-America-caliber hitter in outfielder/first baseman Brady Ballinger and a high-powered offensive attack capable of producing home runs and manufacturing runs with aggressive base running.
Fitzgerald's extensive junior college background and knowledge of lower-level baseball have helped position Kansas for the success it is currently enjoying.
Does this sound familiar?
That's essentially the approach Steve Sabins has taken at West Virginia by mining top-tier talent in the Division II, Division III and lower-level ranks to piece together back-to-back NCAA Tournament Super Regional appearances.
The 15th-ranked Mountaineers, under Sabins, have been a constant in the national polls for the last two seasons he's managed the program following the retirement of coach Randy Mazey, continuing an upward trend that has seen West Virginia in the rankings each of the last nine years.
In the USA Today NCAA Baseball Coaches Poll, which has basically become a continuation of the old Collegiate Baseball rankings that began in the late 1950s, the Mountaineers have been in that poll 39 times since April 17, 2017, when it finally ended a 35-year drought.
West Virginia's 64-year NCAA Tournament Regional hosting drought stopped seven years ago, and the Mountaineers remain in contention for a regional hosting bid this year if they can finish the regular season on a strong note. The early success alum J.J. Wetherholt is having in the big leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals is keeping West Virginia baseball in the national spotlight as well.
"The expectations in our program have been elevated, obviously, over the last five or six years, and our players know it," Sabins said following Tuesday night's 7-2 victory over Marshall at GoMart Ballpark in Charleston before an announced attendance of 9,302, mostly Gold and Blue-clad supporters. "When you go to back-to-back Super Regionals and been in the top 25 for nine consecutive years - and have done things that have never been done before in program history - people understand what the expectations are.
"Sometimes, later in the season, players just start to play a little bit looser and freer and have a little bit more fun because they kind of get used to those expectations," he added.
WVU's current WarrenNolan.com profile includes an RPI of 24 and an ELO ranking of 21, which puts it in range of the top 16 with six games left against RPI No. 15 Kansas and No. 51 TCU. The Mountaineers are currently 5-4 in Quadrant 1 games this year with three Quad-1 games on the horizon this weekend.
Kansas is in slightly better shape there with a 6-3 record in Quad 1 games. The Jayhawks' profile includes an ELO of nine and a 16-8 record in Quad 1-2 games.
Kansas is an impressive 18-2 at home this year, including an undefeated record in Big 12 play, and has not lost at Hoglund Ballpark since March 25 against Sacramento State.
Sabins' guys know what will be in store for them this weekend at Kansas' 2,600-seat stadium, which is anticipating overflow crowds for the Friday-Saturday-Sunday games if the weather cooperates.
"More of the message is like, 'Hey, go play like you are 12 years old in the backyard playing wiffle ball.' They are excited about the opportunity that's in front of them, and they are well-aware of the situation," the coach observed.
A strong argument could be made that this three-game series is the most nationally significant in West Virginia's and Kansas' baseball histories up to this point, which is why there will be lots of eyes on it this weekend.
As far as key college baseball games go, the three-game set at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, Kansas, beginning this Friday night probably comes in at 1-A on the list.
Mike Montoro, the executive associate director of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), vote tabulator of its Top 25 Poll and one of the presenters of the Dick Howser Award at the College World Series each year, has the three-game series at the top of his list, and not just because West Virginia University is his employer.
Others on his radar screen this weekend include Auburn-Mississippi State, Texas A&M-Ole Miss and Oklahoma-Arkansas in the SEC; Oregon-UCLA in the Big Ten and Arizona State-Oklahoma State in the Big 12.
In Lawrence, Kansas is having an historic campaign under fourth-year coach Dan Fitzgerald. The ninth-ranked Jayhawks are in college baseball's top 10 for the first time in school history with a 37-12 overall record and are in line for one of 16 NCAA Tournament regional host sites that will be announced later this month.
Fitzgerald's baseball pedigree includes playing careers at St. Thomas and Wisconsin-River Falls before advancing through the junior college coaching ranks during the last decade. He became Dallas Baptist's recruiting coordinator in 2013, and parlayed success there into a similar role at LSU in 2022.
After his hiring at Kansas in 2023, he had KU in the NCAA Tournament regionals in 2025 for the first time in 11 years. Over the last two seasons, Fitzgerald's Jayhawks have won 80 of 109 games, including an impressive 40-14 mark in Big 12 play.
At 20-4 this year, Kansas has a commanding four-game lead over 16-8 West Virginia and Arizona State in the Big 12 standings with six regular season contests remaining.
So, why has Kansas been so good recently?
According to AI, it is because of a "selfless winning culture" that Fitzgerald has developed focusing on a "one-pitch-at-a-time" approach by his players. Kansas has an All-America-caliber hitter in outfielder/first baseman Brady Ballinger and a high-powered offensive attack capable of producing home runs and manufacturing runs with aggressive base running.
Fitzgerald's extensive junior college background and knowledge of lower-level baseball have helped position Kansas for the success it is currently enjoying.
Does this sound familiar?
That's essentially the approach Steve Sabins has taken at West Virginia by mining top-tier talent in the Division II, Division III and lower-level ranks to piece together back-to-back NCAA Tournament Super Regional appearances.
The 15th-ranked Mountaineers, under Sabins, have been a constant in the national polls for the last two seasons he's managed the program following the retirement of coach Randy Mazey, continuing an upward trend that has seen West Virginia in the rankings each of the last nine years.
In the USA Today NCAA Baseball Coaches Poll, which has basically become a continuation of the old Collegiate Baseball rankings that began in the late 1950s, the Mountaineers have been in that poll 39 times since April 17, 2017, when it finally ended a 35-year drought.
West Virginia's 64-year NCAA Tournament Regional hosting drought stopped seven years ago, and the Mountaineers remain in contention for a regional hosting bid this year if they can finish the regular season on a strong note. The early success alum J.J. Wetherholt is having in the big leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals is keeping West Virginia baseball in the national spotlight as well.
"The expectations in our program have been elevated, obviously, over the last five or six years, and our players know it," Sabins said following Tuesday night's 7-2 victory over Marshall at GoMart Ballpark in Charleston before an announced attendance of 9,302, mostly Gold and Blue-clad supporters. "When you go to back-to-back Super Regionals and been in the top 25 for nine consecutive years - and have done things that have never been done before in program history - people understand what the expectations are.
"Sometimes, later in the season, players just start to play a little bit looser and freer and have a little bit more fun because they kind of get used to those expectations," he added.
WVU's current WarrenNolan.com profile includes an RPI of 24 and an ELO ranking of 21, which puts it in range of the top 16 with six games left against RPI No. 15 Kansas and No. 51 TCU. The Mountaineers are currently 5-4 in Quadrant 1 games this year with three Quad-1 games on the horizon this weekend.
Kansas is in slightly better shape there with a 6-3 record in Quad 1 games. The Jayhawks' profile includes an ELO of nine and a 16-8 record in Quad 1-2 games.
Kansas is an impressive 18-2 at home this year, including an undefeated record in Big 12 play, and has not lost at Hoglund Ballpark since March 25 against Sacramento State.
Sabins' guys know what will be in store for them this weekend at Kansas' 2,600-seat stadium, which is anticipating overflow crowds for the Friday-Saturday-Sunday games if the weather cooperates.
"More of the message is like, 'Hey, go play like you are 12 years old in the backyard playing wiffle ball.' They are excited about the opportunity that's in front of them, and they are well-aware of the situation," the coach observed.
A strong argument could be made that this three-game series is the most nationally significant in West Virginia's and Kansas' baseball histories up to this point, which is why there will be lots of eyes on it this weekend.
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