It has been 24 days since the WVU baseball team was on the wrong side of a final score. The Mountaineers will head up to Nittany Lion country as West Virginia (32-4) takes on Penn State (24-14) this Tuesday at 6 p.m. Read more WVU baseball set to battle Penn State on the road.
The Matchup
This will be the first time these two teams have met this season, as the first game scheduled for April 8th was cancelled due to frigid temperatures. The 2025 series was originally slated to be a home-and-home endeavor between the non-conference regional adversaries. The last time PSU and WVU met on the diamond, the Mountaineers deconstructed the Nittany Lions 18-7 on May 8th, 2024, in Morgantown.
West Virginia has taken the past two contests against Penn State, but fell short the last time the matchup was held in University Park, Pa. (6-11 loss on April 11th, 2023).
Coming into Tuesday’s duel, these two squads are on two vastly different trajectories. Penn State is coming off an 8-11 loss to Purdue on Saturday, game seven of an eight-game homestand for the Nittany Lions. In those seven games, PSU has gone 3-4 against a field of USC, Delaware, and Purdue. Overall, Penn State holds a record of 9-9 at home this year within the confines of Lubrano Park.
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On the other hand, West Virginia is on its season-best 14-game winning streak in its 2025 campaign. Across the past thirteen games, the Mountaineer squad has outscored its opponents 138-69. If you average those runs across 13 games, WVU produced 10.62 runs per game and allowed 5.31. Despite a stout 15-3 record at home, the Mountaineers are even better on the road. No matter where WVU travels, the boys in gold and blue tend to walk out with a victory. In 2025, West Virginia is 19-1 when away from home. The Penn State faithful will provide a raucous atmosphere, but this WVU team seems to remain unfazed no matter where the games are played this season.
Players To Watch
For Penn State, Paxton Kling is the bona fide leader of the team in the batter’s box. The LSU transfer is a solid piece in centerfield, but gets his kicks when he steps up to the plate with a bat in his hand. Kling leads the Nittany Lions in starts (38), games played (38), runs (43), and hits (52), among other categories. Keep an eye out for Paxton Kling to make some noise for the home team on Tuesday.
As always, it can be tough to pick a player for WVU. For this matchup, Jace Rinehart would be one to pay extra attention to on Tuesday evening. Rinehart had an extremely productive series against Cincinnati over Easter weekend, producing five total RBIs in the three games against the Bearcats. The senior outfielder, a West Virginia native from Mannington, trails only Sam White in the batting average category (3.66).
Tune In
The non-conference showdown between WVU and Penn State gets underway at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. The game will be streaming on Big Ten Plus and your radio dial via the Mountaineer Sports Network. The radio stream can be found on 100.9 FM The Torch and its nine affiliate stations.
WVU Baseball Set to Battle Penn State On The Road
