On Friday afternoon, two first-time Men’s College World Series participants in West Virginia and Troy will kick off the tournament by playing each other. The weekend prior, both teams unexpectedly hosted Super Regionals for the first time in their programs’ histories, resorting to non-traditional seating to meet demands that their ballparks couldn’t fulfill.
The 16-seeded Mountaineers, who were put in hosting position after their projected Supers opponent and top-seeded UCLA was eliminated in regionals, have just 2,500 permanent seats at their home venue, Wagener Field. However, WVU averaged 4,620 fans for its two-game Super Regional series against Cal Poly, as thousands of Mountaineer fans scattered on “Randy’s Ridge”—a hill located right above Wagener.
Meanwhile, Troy upset No. 8 Florida at the Gainesville regional, and was only put in Supers hosting position after its opponent, unseeded Little Rock, won the Hattiesburg regional. On Supers weekend, an average of 6,730 fans filled the Trojans’ 2,500-seat Riddle-Pace Field—as well as the grass behind its outfield fence, and the upper west stands of Troy football’s Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Both Troy and West Virginia set program attendance records during Super Regionals.
