photo by: Michael Sudhalter

West Virginia’s Jace Rinehart runs down a fly ball in right field during the Mountaineers’ Big 12 Semifinals game against Arizona on Friday.

ARLINGTON, Texas – West Virginia baseball will hardly miss Globe Life Field, the home of MLB’s Texas Rangers.

In four seasons, the Mountaineers went 1-7 at MLB’s newest ballpark, including a 12-1 loss to Arizona in the Big 12 Conference Semifinals on Friday.

“We didn’t play our best brand of baseball,” WVU first-year head coach Steve Sabins said. “We’ve got to recoup and get ready for a regional.

“It was awesome being one of the final four teams, and Arizona was awesome. We’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”

The conference tournament will be held at the Rangers’ spring training field in Surprise, Arizona from 2026-2029.

Just a day after setting the program record for wins in a season, the top-seeded Mountaineers (41-14) couldn’t find any kind of rhythm against the fourth-seeded Wildcats (38-18).

Offensively, junior Logan Sauve – a first-team All-Big 12 Catcher – was one of the only bright spots for the Mountaineers, going 2-for-3. Sophomore third baseman Armani Guzman went 2-for-2, and junior designated hitter Sam White went 2-for-4.

The Mountaineers finished with 10 hits but couldn’t muster an extra-base hit.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats delivered a heavy blow to WVU when Mason White belted a three-run home run off Jack Kartsonas (6-3), a graduate student. That prompted Sabins to replace Kartsonas with junior reliever Robby Porco.

While Kartsonas struck out six and walked just two, he allowed five runs on eight hits in four innings. Seven Mountaineer relief pitchers combined to allow seven runs on nine hits.

Redshirt junior outfielder Chase Swain, a Manhattan transfer, pinch hit in the seventh inning with an RBI single that kept the Mountaineers from getting run-ruled. He drove in fellow pinch-hitter Guzman.

“We scratched a run and showed some life,” Sabins said.

The one run allowed WVU relief pitcher Reese Bassinger, a Tarleton State transfer who grew up 52 miles northeast of Globe Life Field, to toss a shutout eighth inning.

“I was fired up to get Bassinger in there, and he was super successful,” Sabins said.