Score Predictions for No. 1 West Virginia vs. No. 2 Wake Forest — Morgantown Regional

Picking tonight's game between the Mountaineers and Demon Deacons.

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West Virginia and Wake Forest will square off in an elimination game Sunday afternoon in Morgantown, with the winner punching their ticket to the regional final against Kentucky. The winner will need to beat Kentucky twice to advance, but right now, this game is all that matters.

Wake bounced back after losing to Kentucky with a 12-3 drubbing of Binghamton on Saturday. West Virginia suffered its first loss of the regional, falling to the Wildcats 11-8.

Who wins? Who goes home? Here is how we see this one playing out.

Wake Forest 9, West Virginia 5

When Kentucky beat Wake Forest on Friday, I thought the Mountaineers dodged a bullet. Yes, Kentucky is a solid team and is now considered dangerous because they are playing with house money, but Wake Forest is incredibly talented. They have power arms up and down the roster that throw mid-high 90s and have the juice in the bats to hit the ball over the fence a bunch, too.

This won't be the first time that WVU has seen some hard-throwing pitchers, and with how consistent they've been all year, I don't foresee them having an ugly day at the dish. They'll find ways to manufacture runs; I'm just not sure they will be able to do it enough.

WVU will have no choice but to throw some inexperienced arms at some point today, and that just feels like a recipe for disaster against a potent lineup like Wake's. Consistency is going to be the biggest issue for the Mountaineers on the bump. They may string together a few innings where it looks like they'll be able to keep the game in check, but then they'll run into control issues or leave pitches out over the heart of the plate, which you can't do against anyone, but especially not this team. Unfortunately, West Virginia just doesn't have the horses in place to enter this game in a good spot, and because of it, I believe this will mark the end of their season.

First pitch for West Virginia-Wake Forest will be 12 p.m. ET. The game can be streamed live on ESPN+.