2025 West Virginia Baseball Season Preview

The West Virginia Mountaineers open the season with a four-game series at Jacksonville (Feb.14-16).

Head coach Steve Sabins takes over a program after Randy Mazey was at the helm for 12 seasons, building a perennial postseason contender and reaching new heights with a Big 12 Conference regular season championship and followed with a historic program run to the NCAA Super Regionals last season.

West Virginia was picked fourth in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, the highest predicted finish since joining the league, and junior catcher Logan Sauve was an All-Big 12 Conference Preseason selection.

West Virginia catcher Logan Sauve | Christopher Hall - West Virgnia on SI

Sauve was third on the team with a .308 batting average last season to go with eight home runs, 37 RBI, and 42 runs.

The only Mountaineer to appear in all 60 games, including 59 starts, Sam White, hit .305, leading the team with 65 hits and 47 runs, and recorded 10 home runs and 42 RBI. The junior played several positions last season, even filling in for an injured Sauve, who missed multiple games with a broken kneecap, will start the season at second base.

Brodie Kresser will take over at shortstop. The senior stepped at short last season after JJ Wetherholt was sidelined during the season opening series last season and was out for nearly two months before moving to second after the current St. Louis Cardinal returned to the lineup. He hit .278 with four home runs in 47 appearances.

While Sauve and White are expected to improve on their power from ’24, the program’s home run career leader Grant Hussey (37) returns along with senior Kyle West, who was second on the team with 14 home runs.

“We have really competitive position players, and even some of those returning players, they know there’s some transfer portal players as well as some returners that have made huge jumps,” Sabins said. “There’s legitimately going to be 13 or 14 position players that get opportunities in nonconference to earn jobs and earn innings.”

“We’re going to have to manage the game because we have some talented position players that can bring something to the table that not all their peers can, and so, we’re going to be able to mix and match and set some lineups based on opposing starting pitching to try and beat who’s on the mound that particular day,” Sabins added.

Sabins will take over the offense while assistant coach Justin Oney call the pitches and director of pitching and pitching personnel Christopher Reilly will decide the rotation. Oney has worked with the pitching staff since arriving in Morgantown in '22 and Rielly.

West Virginia University assistant coach Steve Sabins congratulates sophomore Skylar King after a solo home run against Penn State. | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

On the mound, West Virginia lost 75% of its innings to the MLB Draft last year.

“We replaced that with the transfer portal, more experience older pitchers,” Sabins Said.

Highlighting the group is Quincy University (IL) transfer Griffin Kirn. The lefty went 8-1 with a 2.96 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 2024. Sabins compared him to last year’s impact transfer Derek Clark, noting his “bulldog mentality.”

“We have some really special transfers on the mound that I’m really excited about,” Sabins said. “Griffin Kirn, he’s from Quincy, Illinois, and he’s a senior this year. He has over 220 college innings under his belt. So, just extremely mature experienced left-handed strike thrower. In college, you can put old guys on the mound that handle their heartbeat and throw strikes, you got a chance.”

Reese Bassinger comes to Morgantown after going 5-2 with a 3.06 ERA at Tarleton State.

“He’s one of those rubber arm lower slot right-handed pitchers. Bassinger pitched in five consecutive days to win the WAC tournament,” Sabins said. He’s one of those kinds of old school throwback gritty guys that wants the ball every day. He really loves to pitch.”

Highlighting the returners are right-handers Gavin Van Kempen and Robby Porco

West Virginia sophomore Gavin Van Kempen | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

Gavin Van Kempen and went 7-1 last season with a 3.14 ERA and 35 strikeouts before suffering a season-ending injury prior to the final month of the regular season. In his final four outing last season, he threw 10.2 scoreless innings with 13 strikeouts. He enters the season on the Stopper of the Year Watch List.

Robby Porco has dealt with injuries during his Mountaineer career but is expected to be a key part of the starting rotation this season. He finished with 11 strikeouts in 10.1 innings of work in ’24.

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