​  ​​Read More​     OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Oliver Luck had a decision to make in the fall of 2011, a few weeks after the Big 12 announced the addition of West Virginia effective the following year. Should he recommend dropping what had been a mediocre Big East baseball program or commit to giving the Mountaineers what they needed to be competitive going forward in one of the sport’s top conferences?“Obviously, I was biased toward the latter,” Luck, the school’s athletic director at the time, said this week.It’s been apparent for years Luck made the right choice but never more than now with the Mountaineers set to play in the College World Series for the first time. They will face Troy, also making its CWS debut, on Friday.For West Virginia, the trip to Omaha is the realization of the vision Randy Mazey had when he was hired as coach in June 2012, the summer before his team’s first Big 12 season. Relying on players from traditional recruiting areas in and around the state, as the Mountaineers continue to do, those early teams were surprisingly competitive.The Mountaineers in 2017 earned their first NCAA Tournament bid in 21 years, hosted a regional in 2019 and were on the road for regionals in 2023. They reached their first super regional in 2024, and after Mazey retired and handed off the program to longtime assistant Steve Sabins, they made supers again in 2025 and 2026.“Looking back, the 14-year timeline based on where the program was, on the brink of extinction, that’s probably the timeline that should have taken place,” Mazey said.This year’s Mountaineers (45-15) set a school record for wins and their style of play fits well at Schwab Field. Teams that can take advantage of the gaps in the cavernous outfield are rewarded, and West Virginia ranks among the national leaders in doubles and, with over 100 steals, can take the extra base. Maxx Yehl (9-2, 2.10 ERA) and Chansen Cole (10-1, 2.81) lead a pitching staff that has a 3.76 ERA, best among the eight CWS teams.“I said about halfway through this season that this team not only can go to Omaha but this is a team that can win it,” Mazey said.Jedd Gyorko has seen the worst and the best of the program’s history. He was the Mountaineers’ star shortstop from 2008-10, played eight years in the major leagues and is now special assistant to Sabins.It’s 980 miles from Morgantown to Omaha but, from a baseball perspective, the distance was far greater for Gyorko and his teammates.“It was more of a pipe dream back then,” Gyorko said. “You thought about it and you wanted to make it happen. When you look at what it takes, we were pretty far away from being there back then.”Until 2015, the Mountaineers played at the dilapidated Hawley Field. Bad bounces on the infield were common — “Hawley hops,” they called them — and there was no clubhouse. If a coach or player needed to use the restr