This evening, Morgantown will be the heartbeat of college baseball. Roughly 5,000 or so fans will pack into Kendrick Family Ballpark to watch the West Virginia Mountaineers take on the Binghamton Bearcats in the first game of the regional.Here is how we see this one playing out.Schuyler Callihan: West Virginia 7, Binghamton 1West Virginia is electing to pitch off its ace Maxx Yehl, and it's the right decision, regardless of how this game goes. Chansen Cole loves to live down in the zone and create soft contact, which plays well against this Binghamton lineup that lacks pop. Having a pitcher who is a little firmer with the fastball can actually help a team out. Plus, it's not like Cole is your ordinary No. 2. As Steve Sabins said on Thursday, he has pitched like an ace.The Bearcats have not pitched well, and all of those struggles came against lower-level competition, meaning this should be a game where the Mountaineers break out the bats and find some momentum early in the weekend. It may not happen right away, but I don't expect it to take long for West Virginia to get traffic on the bases and throw up some crooked numbers.Joey Bray: West Virginia 9, Binghamton 2The Mountaineers are the heavy favorites in this contest, and for good reason. The Binghamton Bearcats travel to Morgantown after winning the American East tournament with a 31-20 overall record, while West Virginia tallied 39 wins and was the runner-up in the Big 12 Tournament last week.The biggest mismatch in this game is going to be the pitching. The Bearcats have just two pitchers with a sub-3.50 ERA, with only one of them being a starter. The Mountaineers' pitching has been one of their biggest surprises and strong points this season. Whoever the Mountaineers have on the bump for Friday’s contest in addition to Chansen Cole, they will most certainly have the advantage.Overall WVU is simply the more talented team through and through. It would take a monumental effort from the Bearcats pitching staff to be able to stifle what has been a productive Mountaineers offense and create their own offense against an All-Big 12 First Team pitcher.I take the Mountaineers to win comfortably in front of a sold-out home crowd.West Virginia and Binghamton are slated to begin at 5 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow