Mountaineers Check In at No. 27 in NCBWA Preseason Poll

The West Virginia University baseball program was voted 27th in the NCBWA poll on Monday, marking the second preseason rankings the Mountaineers were featured in following Baseball America placing team 21st in its preseason rankings in January.

Head coach Steve Sabins enters his second season at the helm. The Mountaineers finished 12th in the poll last season after a run to the NCAA Super Regionals, a year removed from the program’s first ever Super Regionals appearance and captured their second Big 12 regular season title in three years.

West Virginia returns some key pieces from its historic journey a season ago. Highlighting the group of promising arms is right-handed reliever Chase Meyer. The junior earned 2026 Preseason All-Big 12 and Preseason Second Team NCBWA All-American selections after posting a 9-2 record, a 3.94 ERA, and 63 strikeouts in 48.0 innings while holding opponents to a .192 batting average.

At the plate, Junior Armani Guzman hit .327 with 22 RBI in 49 appearances and 25 starts and led the team with 17 stolen bases. He burst onto the scene during the postseason, earning Most Outstanding Player at the Clemson Regional. He went 8-12 with six RBI to help guide the Mountaineers sweep the regional.

2026 NCBWA DIVISION I PRESEASON POLL

1. LSU

2. UCLA

3. Texas

4. Georgia Tech

5. Arkansas

6. Mississippi State

7. Coastal Carolina

8. Auburn

9. TCU

10. Louisville

11. Oregon State

12. North Carolina

13. Georgia

14. Florida State

15. Tennessee

16. Florida

17. Clemson

18. Vanderbilt

19. NC State

20. Southern Miss

21. Kentucky

22. Miami

23. Arizona

24. Virginia

25. Wake Forest

26. Texas A&M

27. West Virginia

28. Ole Miss

29. East Carolina

30. Oregon

Also Receiving Votes (Alphabetically)

Alabama (41-18), Arizona State (36-24), Austin Peay (45-14), Cal Poly (43-19), Cal State Fullerton (29-27), Cincinnati (33-26), Columbia (30-19), Connecticut (38-21), Creighton (43-16), DBU (41-18), Duke (40-21), East Tennessee State (41-17), Hawai’i (31-21), Jacksonville State (37-25), Kansas (43-17), Kansas State (32-26), Mercer (35-25), Murray State (43-17), Nebraska (32-27), Northeastern (49-11), Oklahoma (38-22), Oklahoma (38-22); Oklahoma State (30-25), San Diego (28-30); Southern Illinois (37-20), Stanford (27-25), Stetson (41-22), Texas Tech (20-33), Troy (39-21), Tulane (33-25), UC Irvine (43-17), UC Santa Barbara (36-18), USC (37-23), USF (31-25), UTRGV (36-18), UTSA (47-15), WKU (46-14); Wright State (40-21), Xavier (32-27).

2026 NCBWA DIVISION I PRESEASON POLL

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