{"id":382585,"date":"2026-08-27T13:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382585\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:20:09","slug":"wvu-is-heading-to-disney-to-play-in-inaugural-orlando-baseball-classic-in-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382585\/","title":{"rendered":"WVU is Heading to Disney to Play in Inaugural Orlando Baseball Classic in 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">Football season is just over a week away from getting started, but after the year the Mountaineers just had on the diamond, fans are eagerly counting down the days until the Omaneers are back in action.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">The non-conference schedule is starting to be slowly rolled out, and on Wednesday, the Mountaineers announced that they will be participating in the Inaugural Orlando Baseball Classic at ESPN Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World Resort from February 26-28.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">&#8220;We are excited to compete in the Orlando Baseball Classic,&#8221; said WVU head coach Steve Sabins in a press release. &#8220;It is a wonderful venue that Mountaineer fans from all over the country can come to and enjoy. Great weather and great baseball.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">&#8220;As NCAA baseball continues its impressive growth pattern, interest in early season, destination-location events have become highly sought after, and what better destination than Central Florida and the immaculate Stadium at ESPN Wide World of Sports,&#8221; said Brooks Downing, founder and president of bdG Sports. &#8220;Fans and participants alike can enjoy premium collegiate baseball, the Florida sunshine, and of course, the largest and most visited theme park destination on earth, Walt Disney World.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The schedule in Orlando<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/01ktxz0knjxqek63344h.jpg\" alt=\"Steve Sabins\" title=\"Steve Sabins\" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"75\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WVU Athletics Communications<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">West Virginia will open play with a matchup against Indiana State on the 26th, with first pitch set for 3 p.m. ET. On the 27th, they will face former Big East foe St. John&#8217;s at 11 a.m. and will round out the weekend against Michigan on Sunday at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">Game 1: The Sycamores went 30-27 (15-9) this past season. They were a scrappy bunch, giving a fight to many of the power conference teams they played, going 6-7 in such contests. They are capable of being an NCAA Tournament-caliber program, though. Between the 2023 and 2024 seasons, they combined for 89 wins.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">Game 2: The Johnnies had a terrific year, winning a share of the Big East regular season title and then winning the conference tournament over Creighton. They surprisingly made it through the Tallahassee regional unscathed, beating Florida State twice and had a 21-8 win over Northern Illinois. Their season came to an end in the Super Regionals, getting swept by Alabama, getting outscored 15-2 in the two games.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">Game 3: Michigan finished the 2026 campaign with a 34-24 mark, but did not have a strong enough resume to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament. They have hovered around that 32-34 win neighborhood for the last three seasons.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:pointerenter=\"q-SEdO1IcU.js#s_1NOcOpHWmT0\" on:touchstart=\"q-Ck2P5H3p.js#s_R8AiGTDeM28\" on:focus=\"q-BYTEPYFe.js#s_gxiTM6qMMu8\" on:click=\"q-iXUfzhYU.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"7w\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Football season is just over a week away from getting started, but after the year the Mountaineers just&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-382585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}