WVU Baseball Faces Scheduling Clash with Music Festival in Lexington

WVU Baseball players and fans found out their draw for the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday, with the Mountaineers heading to the Lexington, Ky. regional hosted by the Kentucky Wildcats.

Unlike other men’s collegiate tournaments, the NCAA doesn’t determine the host site for the early rounds years in advance. Instead, it depends on how teams perform during the season, with the 16 highest ranked teams during the Round of 64 earning a regional host site. 

As such, the Mountaineers and their two fellow road teams in Lexington, the Indiana Hoosiers (who WVU faces in the opening game on Friday) and the Ball State Cardinals soon found out that they’d fallen victim to an awkward scheduling quirk.

Music Mixup

Lexington is set to host the Railbird Music Festival on June 3-4, right in the middle of the regional tournament, which runs from June 2-5.

With country music fans flocking from all over the world to see stars like Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan perform, hotel rooms are booked to capacity for an hour’s radius around Lexington, forcing the visiting teams to stay in dorm rooms on the University of Kentucky’s campus.

BREAKING:
Lexington, Kentucky Regional

No hotels within an hour of Lexington because of a country music festival

West Virginia, Indiana, and Ball State players and coaches are staying in UK dorm rooms…

Read what was sent out to teams. pic.twitter.com/dcpqAEaVqK

— Ben Upton (@Ben_Upton5) May 30, 2023

Of course, this doesn’t just inconvenience the road teams, who will have to cough up $185 per night per suite (which can hold 2-4 athletes depending on team preference) to stay in the dorms.

It also inconveniences their fans and player’s families, who will have to commute at least an hour before and after each game in order to root for the teams they love. 

Mountaineers’ head coach Randy Mazey has maintained a focus on overcoming adversity all season, but the last thing any team wants is a distraction ahead of a playoff series. 

Stay tuned at WVSN to see how the WVU Baseball players respond to this bump in the road.