Wheeling, W. Va. – After making the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Baseball Tournament in two straight seasons, 2025 would see the Cardinals miss out on the postseason. This off-season, the Cardinals have taken on a new look, bringing in 27 new players, while gaining experience with 20 of those being transfers. The Cardinals look to use this experience to their advantage in 2026 as they make a push to be back among the top teams in the MEC.
The 2025 season started strong for the Cardinals, with the team winning three out of four in their opening weekend match-up with Pitt-Johnstown. However, they would end up splitting their 10 non-conference games and looked to turn things around as they entered the MEC schedule. Things wouldnt be easy for the Cardinals, as they head to play both the University of Charleston and West Virginia State in their opening weekend, and they would fall in three of the four games. It was an unfortunate trend that continued over the next two weekends and Wheeling entered MEC North Divisional play sitting at 2-10 in the conference. They would earn a split of their weekend at home against Fairmont State, and would add just three more conference wins over the final three weekends, to finish 14-33 overall and 5-22 in MEC play.
As they entered the 2026 season, the Cardinals have brought in a lot of experience, but return some experience of their own from last season. Leading the offensive push will be Brett Johnson, who earned Honorable Mention All-MEC honors a season ago. The Cardinal right fielder would hit .305 across 131 at-bats, racking up a home run and 15 RBI along the way. He sat third on the team in doubles last season, while stealing the second most bags, going 8-13 on stolen base attempts. He will once again man right field for the Cardinals, where he posted a 1.000 fielding percentage across 68 chances, securing the Cardinal's outfield defense. The senior looks to be a leader on the field and in the batter's box as they head into the 2026 season.
The other returning All-MEC award winner for the Cardinals is Sebastian Khan, who will move into the #1 starter spot. Khan was the team's most consistent starter a season ago, going 1-5 while posting a 4.17 ERA across 41.0 innings of work. Khan was a Strikeout machine on the mound, setting down 43 batters across his 41.0 innings of work, while only walking 11 batters over that span. He allowed three earned runs or fewer in five of his seven appearances during the year, including the first two complete game efforts of his career. Khan will look to once again lead the Cardinal starters as they look to set the offense up for success.
Along with the returning experience, the Cardinals have also brough in a class of 23 transfers, with several of those being in their junior or senior seasons. On the offensive side, senior transfer Edward Mateo will look to help the Cardinal infield, after playing with Point Park over the last two seasons. Mateo hit .228 in his Pioneer career with a .380 on-base and a .380 slugging and will provide veteran leadership in the infield. Joining Khan in the starting rotation will be senior transfer Jacob Rollyson, who came to Wheeling from Malone. Rollyson put together a 2-5 record over 29 games last season, and struck out 31 batters over 40.2 innings of work.
The Cardinals will be forced to be road warriors throughout the season, and it starts from the opening weekend. Wheeling will travel down to South Carolina to take on USC Beaufort in their opening weekend series. They will follow that up with a trip to Virginia State University, before they play their first official home opener against Mansfield. With the I-470 Complex field being flooded over the summer, the Cardinals will host Mansfield at the first of two home locations, GoMart Ball Park in Charleston, West Virginia. The non-conference schedule concludes with a road series against Carolina University, February 27th and 28th, and another home series at GoMart Ball Park against Bluefield State.
They then hit the heart of their MEC schedule, moving things to their second home, EQT Ball Park in Washington, PA. Wheeling will host the University of Charleston and West Virginia State in their opening conference weekend, and will play the reverse of their conference schedule from a year ago. They will travel to West Virginia Wesleyan and Davis & Elkins, while hosting Glenville State and Concord to round out their MEC South schedule. During the MEC North portion of the schedule, the Cardinals will play host to Frostburg State and Point Park in four game series, while traveling to Fairmont State and playing a split home and home series against West Liberty to round out the schedule.
The Wheeling University Baseball team will start the 2026 season on Friday, February 6th, when they open a three-game series with USC Beaufort, with first pitch at 6 PM.
