The No. 16 West Virginia University baseball team advanced to the Morgantown Regional final with a 10-5 victory over two-seed Wake Forest, Sunday afternoon at Kendrick Family Ballpark. The Mountaineers will play Kentucky at 5 p.m. tonight and must win to force a winner-take-all game seven on Monday.
Junior Dawson Montesa pitched 7.1 innings, striking out seven and allowing five runs, four of which were earned. It was his longest outing of the season as he threw 122 pitches. Graduate student Reese Bassinger finished the game with 1.2 scoreless innings and two strikeouts.
Graduate Sean Smith recorded three hits and drove in two runs for West Virginia. Sophomore Gavin Kelly contributed two hits and scored twice, while senior Ben Lumsden reached base four times and also crossed the plate twice.
The Mountaineers took an early lead in the second inning by scoring three runs, starting with a wild pitch that allowed Smith to score. Junior Tyrus Hall added an RBI single before another run came in due to an error by Wake Forest’s right fielder.
Wake Forest responded with a run in the third inning and tied the game in the fourth after hitting a two-run home run. In the fifth inning, Smith delivered an RBI single that put West Virginia back ahead by scoring Kelly. The team extended its lead in the sixth inning by adding five more runs through RBI hits from Lumsden, junior Armani Guzman, and Kelly; senior Paul Schoenfeld followed with a sacrifice fly before Guzman scored on an errant pickoff attempt to second base. Smith capped off West Virginia’s offense with an RBI double for their tenth run of the game.
The Demon Deacons added one run each in both the seventh and eighth innings but did not threaten further as West Virginia secured its place in its third straight regional final after previously winning regionals in Tucson (2024) and Clemson (2025).