Ian Korn will pitch for West Virginia in 2026 after sweeping the major Division II Pitcher of the Year honors this past season at Seton Hill.
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York City’s newest storm drain art takes shape near the Appell Center in York City, shown Saturday, June 25, 2025.
Ian Korn began the 2025 college baseball season hoping to entrench himself in Seton Hill’s starting rotation. He concluded the spring by sweeping the three major NCAA Division II Pitcher of the Year honors. That success, however, left him with a difficult decision to make.
The York Suburban High School graduate had no shortage of options for his final year of eligibility in 2026. He could return to the Griffins for one more season. He could enter the transfer portal and make the jump to Division I. He could even pursue an opportunity in the professional ranks.
During Seton Hill’s postseason exit meetings, Korn’s coaches advised him to enter the portal as soon as he walked in the door. He officially obliged in early June and committed to West Virginia two weeks later. The right-hander still let the MLB draft process play out, but after going unselected Sunday and Monday, his plans to become a Mountaineer are set in stone.
“It was a whirlwind of a few weeks,” Korn said, “but it was fun, looking back at it.”
Korn made 14 starts in his life-changing redshirt junior season, going 11-2 with a 1.81 ERA. He struck out 83 batters while allowing just 17 walks and one home run in 84 1/3 innings pitched. He was named PSAC West Pitcher of the Year after the regular season and helped Seton Hill upset Millersville at NCAAs en route to a third straight Super Regional appearance. The sports management major was also named an Academic All-American earlier this month.
Those accolades felt so far away when Korn underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 (early enough in the season to receive a medical redshirt). Even before the injury, he had pitched to a 6.35 ERA as a freshman and a 5.06 mark in his shortened sophomore season. Korn showed strikeout stuff but struggled with control, fanning 50 hitters while walking 17 and plunking four in his first 33 1/3 innings. Seven of his eight career wild pitches came as a rookie in 2022.
Korn returned as a reliever in 2024 and went 3-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 15 2/3 innings across nine appearances. He then built up to a starter’s workload while pitching in the Prospect League for the Johnstown Mill Rats, posting an impressive 1.63 ERA in eight starts (38 2/3 innings). That set the stage for one of the biggest breakout seasons in all of college baseball.
“It was kind of an eye-opener, not just physically but also mentally,” Korn said of the surgery. “I needed to work on a bunch of things and become a better pitcher, but also a better teammate as well. And that’s what I did after surgery — take the time to rehab my arm, spend time with the coaches and upperclassmen that helped me along the way, understand the game a little better, understand routines and pushing my teammates and myself to our max.”
More than 60 schools reached out after Korn entered the portal, he said, but his only two visits were to Penn State and West Virginia. He announced his commitment to the Mountaineers on June 14. West Virginia finished 44-16 in 2025, winning the Big 12 regular-season title and coming out on top at the Clemson Regional before falling in the Super Regional round against eventual national champion LSU.
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After going undrafted this week, Korn received a free-agent offer from the Minnesota Twins, but the package didn’t stack up to that of West Virginia. Korn has plenty to gain from pitching in a power conference in 2026 — not only will the competition and atmosphere be a big step up, but the high-level coaching and resources should help him fine-tune the best version of himself.
“Having a pitching lab, elite coaches … the trackman and all the biomechanical stuff that they’ve got there is going to help me on the physical side of things,” Korn said. “And then the national level of playing in the Big 12, in the Power Four, it’s a whole different ballgame. So I’m hoping to perform well on the national stage and get out there in front of scouts and teams, and hopefully that’ll lead to a little bit better of a result at the draft next year.”
Korn made four starts this summer with the Coastal Plain League’s Morehead City Marlins before being shut down by West Virginia’s staff in recent days. He will join the team as a graduate student in the fall and could slot in at the top of the rotation in 2026. The Mountaineers have turned Division II transfers Derek Clark and Griffin Kirn into aces the last two seasons.
Korn, like millions of kids across the country, grew up wanting to play in the Major Leagues. That dream didn’t go away when he signed with a Division II program, and the doubts that crept in during his early years at Seton Hill have been erased by his 2025 dominance. Now West Virginia represents an exciting next chapter in a journey Korn hopes is far from finished.
“It’s always been a goal of mine ever since I can remember as a kid,” Korn said. “And then it became real this past year — ever since coming back from surgery, really. … Once I really took the time to work on myself as a pitcher, mentally and physically, then it started to become a real thing.
“Ultimately, God’s plan didn’t have me going there yet.”
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