MORGANTOWN, West Virginia. Steve Sabins sees a chance for West Virginia baseball to add more power as the Mountaineers work through their post-fall evaluations. Two junior-college additions, Colin Coonradt and Ryan Piekutoski, are part of that possibility, although their roles still have to be earned.
In Joe Brocato’s November 1 report for MetroNews, Sabins singled out the pair while discussing the roster on Citynet Statewide Sportsline. The coach described their combined junior-college home-run production as approximately 60 and said he was encouraged by the way they drove the ball. That figure is Sabins’ assessment, rather than a newly verified statistical total.
The official 2027 WVU roster lists Coonradt as a junior utility player from Cedar Falls, Iowa, who previously played at Johnson County Community College. He is listed at 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds and bats left-handed. Piekutoski is a sophomore infielder from Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, listed at 6-foot-4 after coming from USC-Sumter.
Those backgrounds give WVU two different profiles to evaluate. Coonradt’s utility designation suggests potential flexibility, while Piekutoski enters with an infield listing. Neither designation settles where a player will fit once the Mountaineers begin making lineup decisions.
Sabins’ comments also came with a qualification: success at the junior-college level must translate against the competition WVU will face. According to MetroNews, the staff was conducting individual development meetings after fall play, focusing on specific improvements instead of treating the starting lineup as finished. Sabins contrasted the possibility of more power with the stolen bases and aggressive running that helped fuel the previous team’s offense.
For the Mountaineers, extra-base damage could offer another way to create runs without requiring every scoring chance to depend on manufacturing an advance. That is a potential benefit, not a forecast of either newcomer’s production. The useful next step is seeing whether their approach, contact quality and defensive fit hold up as the competition for roles continues.