The 2026 Kentucky baseball team's first action against outside competition will be against the opponent that ended its 2025 season. The Wildcats will face West Virginia in a scrimmage on Sunday, Oct. 5 at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio.
Kentucky and West Virginia have met in the postseason in recent years. The Mountaineers were in the Lexington Regional in 2023 and were eliminated by Kentucky that season. They met again last year in the Clemson Regional, and West Virginia hit a walkoff single in the bottom of the 9th inning to defeat Kentucky 4-3 in the opener. After Kentucky defeated USC Upstate and Clemson, the two teams played in the regional final, and the Mountaineers again mounted a late comeback and won another one-run game, 13-12, to end Kentucky's season. West Virginia was eliminated in the Super Regional by eventual national champion LSU.
West Virginia, which will be in its second year under head coach Steve Sabins, has played in two straight super regionals. The Mountaineers went 19-9 in the Big 12 last year and are expected to once again be one of the best teams in the league. Baseball America ranked West Virginia No. 14 in its way-too-early top 25 rankings from July.
"There’s plenty of veteran production to replace on both sides of the baseball, but Sabins has a solid group of returners to build around in addition to an impressive transfer portal class," Baseball America's Jacob Rudner and Peter Flaherty wrote. "Sophomore Gavin Kelly headlines the returning core offensively, while live-armed righthander Chase Meyer figures to compete for the Friday starter role after pitching predominantly in relief in 2025.
"Division II standout Dawson Montesa is in line to earn a spot in the Mountaineers’ weekend rotation, and keep an eye on lefthander Andrew Middleton, as well. Middleton is perhaps the biggest wild card in this year’s portal cycle and logged a whopping 29 strikeouts across 11.2 innings this spring. His health is a question mark, but he could be a high-impact arm if everything clicks."
It will be the fourth consecutive year the Wildcats have played one of their two fall scrimmages at Prasco Park. It faced Xavier in 2022, Michigan in 2023 and Wright State in 2024.
On Oct. 26, Kentucky will host Morehead State at Kentucky Proud Park for its second exhibition. The Wildcats outscored Morehead State 30-4 in a scrimmage last year at KPP as well, and also defeated the Eagles 8-2 during the regular season.
Kentucky will also host an open scrimmage at Kentucky Proud Park on Oct. 17, according to the Kentucky Baseball Twitter account.
📅 We’ve finalized the dates for our two fall exhibition games, times TBA.
Derek Terry is the founder of Bat Cats Central, a leading source for University of Kentucky baseball coverage. Before leaving full-time sportswriting, Derek worked for The Cats' Pause (2017-22) and Cats Illustrated (2015-17).
