Chansen Cole is one of the latest commitments to West Virginia out of the transfer portal.
Cole is ready to embrace the West Virginia community and better himself as a player, hoping to be able to make a difference.
Cole is coming to WVU from Newberry College, a Division II school in South Carolina.
"The guys over at Newberry will always mean a lot to me, all the coaches, my teammates, and the people around the college. They were one of few teams that gave me a chance coming out of high school, so they will always stick with me. But it was great to go into my first year of college baseball and gain a lot of experience and have some success with it," Cole told WVSports.Com.
Cole is a right-handed pitcher who tossed 87.2 innings as a freshman this past season.
"I decided to enter the portal because not only did I want to play the game at a higher level, but I wanted to be at a place with top-tier resources that would allow me to play this game for a long time," Cole said.
Cole had a successful first season of college baseball, striking out 97 batters with a 3.39 ERA this past year. He then entered the portal and West Virginia checked a lot of boxes for Cole.
"For WVU, I had been talking with the coaches over the phone for quite some time and knew that I loved what they were about. Once I took the visit, I was able to meet them in person, and meet some of the people that help make WVU Baseball special. Then, after seeing all of the top-of-the-line resources and facilities, I knew that this was where I wanted to be for the rest of my collegiate career," Cole said.
Cole enjoyed Morgantown on his visit, and took notice of the pride West Virginia fans have for the Mountaineers. Head coach Steve Sabins along with assistant coach Justin Oney, were the two main coaches from WVU in contact with Cole when he went in the portal.
"My visit was awesome. Seeing Morgantown and how passionate this fan base is made it an easy decision for me. I had been talking with Coach Sabins and Coach Oney since about the time I entered the portal, so being able to listen to them and hear their knowledge on the game and how they plan to keep having success made it a really cool experience for me," Cole said.
Cole added that seeing how much West Virginians love WVU sports stood out to him and made him want to become a Mountaineer even more, in addition the new facilities WVU has been building.
"Riding around the city and seeing all of the WVU flags flying around and all of the WVU stickers on the back of cars was really cool. As far as facilities, the brand new Baseball Biomechanics Performance Center was something I have never seen before. On top of that, having every resource imaginable right in front of you was definitely awesome to see," Cole said.
Overall, Cole brings a competitive mindset and wants team success more than anything else.
"As a player, I’m bringing someone who loves to compete, loves to work, and loves to win baseball games. As a person, I’m bringing someone who wants to see everyone around me succeed and would do anything to make that happen," Cole said.
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