Exclusive: Gov. Morrisey Offers WVU Baseball Analysis Ahead of CWS

The NCAA Baseball tournament bracket continues to provide a favorable path for WVU Baseball, with the No. 16 seeded Mountaineers set to face unranked Troy in the opening game of the College World Series… but West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey isn’t letting himself look past the opponent at hand.

After dodging No. 1 overall UCLA in the Super Regional, the Mountaineers won’t face a team with a number next to their name until Saturday, June 13 at the earliest — nine games into their tournament run. A former high school athlete who ran cross country and played tennis, Morrisey knows not to take any win for granted.

“One Game at a Time”

“I’m a believer in the school of one game at a time. So right now we have Troy to face,” Morissey said in an exclusive interview with West Virginia Sports Now. “People want to take them lightly. I don’t. They played a lot of really tough teams and a really brutal schedule. They’re hot right now, so the bats are really hitting.”

WVU has a budding rivalry with UNC, who eliminated the Mountaineers in the 2024 Super Regional. A year later, the Tar Heels kept West Virginia out of the men’s basketball tournament, ending up on the favorable side of a controversial at-large bid decision. While facing UNC would give the Mountaineers a chance at revenge, Morrisey won’t overlook any of the other seven teams remaining in the country.

“Whether you’re talking Ole Miss, Troy — once again, Troy is hot right now — you wouldn’t want to take anything for granted. I’m just hoping WVU can keep winning, and that means win the first game, win the next game and then wow,” Morrisey said. “Can you imagine if we can take that third and we can get into the finals? Then I think you’ll just see West Virginia respond in a way they never have in a very, very long time.”

Morrisey was in attendance for three of the Mountaineers’ seven postseason games so far: wins over Binghamton, the Regional clincher against Kentucky, and against Cal Poly in the Super Regional. He praised the team for their blue-collar identity, with players like Ben Lumsden — a bench bat for most of the season — stepping up to hit his only three home runs this season in the NCAA Tournament.

Reflecting the Mountain State

Morrisey compared Lumsden’s performance with the Mountain State’s identity as a whole.

“You have people that were on the bench a good part of the year. You think of Lumsden that comes in — lights out when you get to crunch time,” Morrisey said. “There’s so much excitement here, and people can feel it, and they can see how West Virginians come together working with themselves. And that’s a great message for the whole country.”

Morrisey praised WVU Baseball head coach Steve Sabins’ method of roster building, finding hidden gems like Chansen Cole and Ian Korn, both of whom pitched in Division II last season, and turning them into power conference inning eaters. He also recognized Dawson Montesa, formerly of D-II Adelphi, for his gutsy performance in the regional winner against Kentucky. After throwing 122 pitches against Wake Forest the day before, Montesa appeared for ten pitches, two outs and the win, getting the Mountaineers out of a jam against the heart of the Wildcats’ order.

“If you were at that game, you could feel the emotion of what happened with all those pitches when Kentucky was threatening to score. And now we had people coming in and they shut him down,” Morrisey said. “And then the hitting… All at the right times, and that’s why I think this is a real special team, that they can kill you in a lot of different ways. That’s fun to watch.”

With the Mountaineers already in Omaha — they’ll face Troy at 2 p.m. on Friday, June 12 — Morrisey said he looks forward to how they can continue to put West Virginia on the map.

“Steve Sabins has put together a wonderful group of kids,” Morrisey said, “and I think that they’re gonna capture the hearts of people across the country.”