OMAHA, Neb. – Country Roads played for a second time in Omaha.
Dawson Montesa tossed 5.1 scoreless innings and Gavin Kelly smacked a three-run homer in the sixth as No. 16 West Virginia blanked Troy 12-0 in front of 21,814 fans on Tuesday afternoon in Game 9 of the 2026 College World Series at Charles Schwab Field.
The Mountaineers (47-16) will face No. 5 North Carolina on Wednesday, June 17, at 1 p.m. CT. WVU must beat UNC twice to reach the CWS Championship Series. The Trojans concluded their season with a 39-32 record.
“I felt like if we had a chance to get some momentum cooking, that’s obviously where we want to be going into next game,” WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. “And we’re just excited to be one of the last four teams standing in the country, and want to prepare and get ready to compete for tomorrow.”
Montesa (6-5) allowed two hits, walked four and struck out six.
“It’s just hitting your spots that the pitching coach calls,” Montesa said. “They do the scouting reports day in and day out, so you trust them. You trust to execute every pitch they call. So just spotting up a pitch and not letting base runners get to you is pretty important.”
After stranding two in each of the first two innings, WVU broke through in the top of the third. Kelly had a leadoff single, went to second on a groundout and scored on a two-out double by Matthew Graveline to make it 1-0. Graveline got to third and scored on a great read on a wild pitch that did not get too far from catcher Jimmy Janicki as the Mountaineers took a 2-0 edge.
With two away In the top of the sixth, Tyrus Hall walked on a 3-2 pitch. Armani Guzman followed with a walk on a 3-1 pitch. Kelly fell behind 1-2 and worked the count to 3-2 before going deep for the 18th time to extend the WVU lead to 5-0.
“it felt awesome to be able to hit that and help the boys out,” Kelly said. “And it’s funny how it works out because I wasn’t seeing the ball great the first two games was pressing. So being able to get that is huge.”
Later in the sixth, Paul Schoenfeld reached on an infield hit, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a base hit by Sean Smith to push the Mountaineers advantage to 6-0.
Matt Ineich had a leadoff single in the seventh and came home on a base hit by Ben Lumsden as WVU extended its lead to 7-0.
The Trojans had their best chance to score in the bottom of the seventh. Houston Markham doubled, Aaron Piasecki walked and Josh Pyne singled to load the bases with no outs. Reese Bassinger was summoned from the bullpen and kept the shutout intact with a strikeout, a flyout to shallow center and a second strikeout.
“When I got the call to go in, I was pretty pumped up already,” Bassinger said. “So then getting out of it, sometimes you get a jam shot and it doesn’t go your way. But this time, Paul [Schoenfeld] caught it, makes the throw home, and I strike out the next guy. It was pretty sick.”
Bassinger struck out the side in the eighth, fanning five of the six batters he faced.
Guzman had a two-run double and scored in a five-run ninth as the Mountaineers pushed the lead to 12-0.
Kelly went 3 for 6 with a homer, two runs and four RBI. Guzman was 2 for 4 with two walks, two runs and two RBI for WVU.
Piasecki and Sean Darnell both walked twice for the Trojans.
Troy stranded 13, including eight in scoring position.
“There’s no way they’re going to forget what they’ve done,” Troy head coach Skylar Meade said. “And being one of the last six teams in this country is something that I’m sure nobody thought was possible, maybe other than the people that are in our dugout.”
Notes
- West Virginia tied a CWS record with seven stolen bases.
- The Mountaineers are 4-0 in this year’s NCAA tourney in elimination games.
- WVU is 19-3 in its past 22 contests.
- Armani Guzman extended his hitting streak to 10 games and on-base streak to 13 games.
- With 13 strikeouts vs. Troy, WVU set a program record with 596 strikeouts. The previous record was 595 set in 2019.
- Troy went 1-2 in its first CWS appearance.
- In this year’s NCAA Tournament, Troy was 7-0 when scoring seven or more runs and 0-3 when scoring six runs or fewer.