Photo by Ben Powell West Virginia baseball pitcher Maxx Yehl throws a pitch during the Mountaineers super regional against Cal Poly.

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia baseball’s hitting received a lot of attention in the NCAA tournament. The Mountaineers beat Kentucky on a walk-off single from Armani Guzman, and Paul Schoenfeld hit a two-run go-ahead home run to rally in the ninth. Then, against Cal Poly in the super regional, with ESPN personality and former WVU punter Pat McAfee watching, the Mountaineers lit it up with multiple home runs, hitting five in the final game of the super regional.

With the offensive explosions, the pitching is overshadowed a little, and it, too, has been a major reason why WVU is headed to its first-ever College World Series. And it’s not just one pitcher. Multiple arms on the pitching staff have pitched their best games this postseason.

The standout pitcher has been Chansen Cole. Cole was the Mountaineers’ No. 2 starter for most of the season. He didn’t light it up with his velocity, but he was always pretty consistent. From May on, Cole flipped a switch. The Division II transfer has 12 earned runs in his last seven times on the mound and over 39 innings. In the NCAA tournament, Cole has allowed three runs in almost 14 innings and has 23 strikeouts. He had a season-high in strikeouts in his first NCAA tournament start against Binghamton, and then broke it in his next start in Game 1 of the super regional with 11.

There’s a real chance Cole starts the first game of the College World Series against Troy on Friday, June 12, and Sabins should feel pretty confident in penciling him.

“Chansen Cole does what he does, and that’s win,” head coach Steve Sabins said after Cole’s Cal Poly start. “That guy is a winner. Mentality, stuff, work ethic, he’s everything that WVU is about. It was on full display after pretty heroic performances last weekend. He keeps wanting the ball and performing at the highest level. He’s consistent.”

If it’s not Cole, it’s Maxx Yehl. Yehl was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and had the lowest ERA in the conference in the regular season. Yehl is WVU’s big 6-foot-6 lefty ace. But his first start in the regional against Kentucky didn’t go as planned. Yehl didn’t get out of the first inning after he let up two hits, walked a batter and plunked two more. Yehl didn’t look like himself.

Sabins said Yehl had a shoulder injury, but he was optimistic that he could start if WVU pushed it to a Game 7 in the regional final.

Schoenfeld homered to provide the Yehl a chance at redemption, and he took advantage. He went five innings and allowed just one run, while striking out six. He followed that up by throwing another five against Cal Poly in Game 2 of the super regional, and again, he only allowed a run. After getting pulled in the first inning, Yehl has completely flipped the script and looks more like the pitcher of the year again.

Other than Yehl and Cole, there were some other heroes from the pitching staff during the NCAA tournament.

Dawson Montesa was a big one. Montesa was moved out of a starter role in the regular season after some tough outings and the emergence of Ian Korn as a starter. But Montesa was asked to start against a high-powered Wake Forest team and shut it down. Montesa pitched seven innings and 122 pitches in the win over the Demon Deacons. Then, the next day, Monstesa closed out the regional final against Kentucky and picked up two crucial outs. That was after throwing over 100 pitches the day before.

There was also Ben McDougal out of the pen in the regional final. When WVU’s pitching was struggling, the Bridgeport, West Virginia, native threw five innings, which was more than he did all season, and struck out six, picking up the win.

Korn had settled things down after Yehl went out with an injury, and Reese Bassinger came in for a couple of games out of the pen and took command. Carson Estridge and David Hagen picked up a couple of innings when needed, too.

WVU’s NCAA tournament pitching has to keep trending upwards in the CWS, and it’s important because it goes back to a double-elimination format. It’s not like a normal three-game weekend series. Unlike the regional, the CWS is spread out, so there wouldn’t be multiple games a day. The only scenario where there is limited rest would be if the Mountaineers are in the loser’s bracket final.

If that’s the case, the pitching still has proven it can handle limited rest and take care of business.

“I want to shout out the pitching staff,” Armani Guzman said after the regional final. “Those guys don’t really get an award because these’ so many pitchers who throw… Shout out to you guys.”