By: James Gravley | WV Sports Chat
The West Virginia Mountaineers had to win three games in a row after its loss to Kentucky in the Morgantown Regional to advance to the Super Regional. What we didn’t know that is UCLA, who was the top-seed in the entire tournament would get knocked out with two losses to Saint Mary’s.
Now you follow that up with Cal Poly sweeping its way through the Los Angeles Regional and WVU defeating Wake pretty easily and late-inning heroics from Paul Schoenfeld in the ninth inning with a two-run home run that led WVU to a 11-9 victory set up a decisive game seven. In the bottom of the 10th frame Armani Guzman did something he’s used to against Kentucky — he walked it off for the second consecutive year — this time to force the road to Omaha to stop in Morgantown.
Cal Poly won’t be a slouch.
In fact, fully expect them to come out ready to play even though the game is starting at 9 am (their time).
The Mustangs have a pair of aces in their rotation in Carson Turnquist and Griffin Naess.
Turnquist missed some time in 2025 due to recovering from Tommy John surgery but, he’s quickly bounced back this year posting a 9-2 record with a 3.46 ERA over 75 innings of work. He’s also recorded 90 strikeouts with 38 walks this season.
Against Saint Mary’s in the Regional he worked six complete innings where he posted seven strikeouts with no walks and five hits allowed with just one run scoring.
I expect Turnquist to get the ball on Friday afternoon.
Their solid number two guy is Naess. He’s got some filthy stuff in his arsenal and has a very high swing-and-miss percentage.
Naess was the Friday night starter for Cal Poly last year, but I think he will be used in the Saturday slot for the Mustangs.
This year he has worked 87.2 innings where he holds a 8-4 record with a 4.00 ERA and over that span he struck out 96 with 32 walks and 42 runs scored over a span of 82 hits allowed.
Against Virginia Tech, Naess went seven full innings striking out nine batters while allowing one run to score over five hits.
If WVU expects to win, they will need to get to the Mustangs starting pitchers early and often.
Photo: Cal Poly Baseball
