No one ever said it better than Jim Nantz, the iconic sports announcer on the CBS sports show The NFL Today (1975-1993) and later on CBS Sports.The phrase has become synonymous with sports broadcasting.

West Virginia sports fans can relate well to the phrase after their historic run in the College Baseball World Series. While there is a thrill of victory and an agony of defeat, it’s also great to say that Mountaineer fans far and wide suffered little agony over falling to a very good North Carolina team. What agony they felt was soon dissipated when they looked back on the storybook season.

The 2026 West Virginia University baseball team achieved the most successful season in their 135-year history, culminating in their first-ever appearance in the College World Series (CWS) and finishing as one of the final four teams in the country. Under Head Coach Steve Sabins, the team went 47-17, advanced to Omaha, and won their first-ever CWS game, defining a new standard for the program. That’s a damn good record for a team many people gave up on early following a one game massacre at the hands of all teams, a mediocre Pitt Panther squad, and on the home turf at that!

However, that one game proved to be a wake-up call and from that point on the 2026 campaign was highlighted by a transformative, “miraculous” run that captured the imagination of the state, turning a previously overlooked program into a national contender.

After falling short in the Super Regionals in 2024 and 2025, the 2026 team won the Morgantown Regional, advanced through Super Regionals also held in Morgantown, and clinched a CWS spot for the first time ever.

The team opened the CWS with a 7-5 victory over Troy (with 7 stolen bases, matching a record) and stayed alive in the tournament with a 12-0 shutout win over Troy, before being eliminated by North Carolina with a 12-7 loss.

During the season sophomore Gavin Kelly led the team with a .377 batting average, 17 home runs, and 57 RBI, while junior Armani Guzman broke the single-season school record with 39 stolen bases.

Maxx Yehl was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Year with a 2.10 ERA, leading a staff that included standouts Chansen Cole and Ian Korn. Head Coach Steve Sabins was named the NCBWA Mike Martin National Coach of the Year.

The Mountaineers capitalized on home-field advantage at Kendrick Family Ballpark throughout the NCAA tournament, with sold-out crowds that solidified Morgantown as a premier college baseball atmosphere. Regardless of the final outcome, Mountaineer fans will forever remember this great WVU team. It’s a team that will enter into the history books as overachievers who tasted the thrill of victory, felt the agony of defeat, and never gave up. They enjoyed the run, finishing as one of the top four teams in college baseball. Yogi Berra’s old saying, “It ain’t over till it’s over” is true. And we still have more games left. “Wait till next year.”