WVU Moves Up in D1Baseball's Top 25 Rankings After Series Win at Liberty

It was another successful weekend for the West Virginia Mountaineers, who took two of three from the Liberty Flames on the road, improving their record to 5-1 on the season. They opened the series with some hot bats, plating 12 runs on 11 hits. The pitching staff did a marvelous job in the first two games, allowing a combined six hits and no runs.

Because of the strong showing, West Virginia was bumped up a spot to No. 24 in D1Baseball's top 25 rankings.

The full Top 25 via D1Baseball

1. UCLA
2. LSU
3. Texas
4. Mississippi State
5. Georgia Tech
6. Arkansas
7. Auburn
8. North Carolina
9. Coastal Carolina
10. Florida
11. Georgia
12. Southern Miss
13. Oklahoma
14. North Carolina State
15. Clemson
16. Wake Forest
17. Miami
18. TCU
19. Oregon State
20. Tennessee
21. Florida State
22. Kentucky
23. Texas A&M
24. West Virginia
25. Ole Miss

Week 2 takeaways

Deep pitching staff - Having one or two high-level starters will only take you so far. You need to have a quality midweek arm and several bullpen options that can eat up innings to get you to your back-end guys. West Virginia appears to have that. Ian Korn has seemingly taken over that long relief role and helps WVU from having to churn through multiple relievers before reaching the high-leverage guys. Reese Bassinger, Carson Estridge, and Chase Meyer are consistent options with elite stuff, but I'd be remiss to mention true freshman David Perez, who has been electric so far this season.

Balanced lineup - In years past, there would be a big drop-off in production, and the bench was a big concern. I don't sense that will be an issue this year. If Tyus Hall primarily bats in the nine hole and he's hitting in the .280-.290 range, you're going to be in great shape.

Up next for the Mountaineers

West Virginia's home opener was initially scheduled for tomorrow against Canisius, but that was canceled due to the weather. Instead, the Mountaineers will play the Ohio Bobcats at Wagener Field at Kendrick Family Ballpark on Wednesday. First pitch will be at 1 p.m. ET and can be streamed on ESPN+.

After that one-gamer against Ohio, they will hit the road once again, heading south for a three-game series against Kennesaw State, which begins on Friday. They will then return home for the final six games of non-conference play, hosting Radford for two, Columbia for three, and then a single game against the Maryland Terrapins on Tuesday, March 10th.