By: John Fredericks
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — In head coach Steve Sabins’ first year at the helm, The West Virginia Mountaineers baseball team has rocketed to an 18-1 start. Early season non-conference wins against sub-par opponents were dismissed by the traditional by many. Read Sabins To Big 12: Polls Be Damned.
That narrative unraveled last weekend as Sabins’ Mountaineers overcame obstacles in Stillwater, Oklahoma to shock the Cowboys in the only game of the series, winning 8-6.
At 1-0 in the conference, the Mountaineers face another test this weekend as they host the Arizona Wildcats, one of the Big 12’s top teams according to pre-season polling.
Morgantown is a nightmare for visiting teams, especially those coming from other time zones. Kendrick Family Ballpark is anticipating a sold out crowd on Friday night.
Season tickets sold out for the first time in the University’s history.
Truth be told, half-price cocktails until the first pitch certainly puts the already rabid WVU fan base in a festive mood.
Sabins Unplugged
Coach Sabins came on my radio show on Thursday to preview the upcoming series.
Here are some key excerpts:
John: Coach, what is the soul of this team?
Sabins: I think the resiliency and the depth has been incredible. We had a hell of a week in Oklahoma. So we traveled down there on Thursday and you have to fly from Pittsburgh to Dallas, Dallas to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City bus to Stillwater. And then after that, Friday’s game was canceled because of heavy winds, but there started to be some wildfires and some smoke in the air and so they canceled Friday’s game.
READ: WVU WRESTLING WRAPS UP DAY 1 AT WRESTLING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
And so Friday, we went to go practice in Stillwater and our hotel got evacuated while we were in Stillwater. So, police came to the hotel, said no one can enter, no one can exit kind of thing or everyone needs to exit, and so our whole team was in Stillwater at the baseball field, baseball pants, no luggage, no nothing. And we had to find a hotel room an hour and a half out of town in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
We went there, we bought the guys white t-shirts and phone chargers and new underwear from Walmart, basically, and had to figure it out from there. We had a day off on Saturday. There were people’s homes in the community that had burnt down, tough situation.
Came back Sunday, kind of refocused and won a baseball game.
Chasing Meyer
Sabins: Chase Meyer was spectacular on Sunday…Everyone always sees 3.2 innings, nine punches, you win the game, and everyone just assumes that it’s easy because he’s so talented.
Without a doubt, he’s a first round talent, but he’s been told that kind of his whole life, talent, talent, talent, potential, potential, potential. But that day, he was a winner and he was an out-getter. And there’s a big difference between winners and losers and potential.
There’s a lot of guys that have potential that don’t live up to nothing. And so for him to evolve into getting the ball in the biggest moment of the season against the best opponent that we played and actually winning, that’s really cool.
That’s so awesome for that kid. And just I think sometimes folks forget that these are young guys that are battling through stuff and just because you throw 99 MPH and you’re going to be a [top] draft pick doesn’t mean he’s not battling through stuff. And so to get to that point was such a win for him. It was awesome. I think right now he’s got 13.2 innings and 22 strikeouts, so he’s punching out two an inning right now.
Travel Snubs For Upperclassmen
John: The upperclassmen that you have that are not getting PT right now, some upperclassmen not making the travel team. I’m not talking about the freshmen, I’m talking about sophomores and juniors that have to stay behind. How do you keep them motivated? Because obviously, they’re upperclassmen, they’re not traveling with the team, they’re not getting PT. How do you keep that locker room intact?
Sabins: Not easy. They’ve been incredible. And you got to work while you wait. You really have no choice because every day, and we preach it from the beginning and I just really believe it, every day is an opportunity.
Every day you can make what you want of it. And so it’s super easy to cash it in.
But there’s a million ways to do that throughout your entire life, whether it’s your job or your family or your wife or your kids, you have an opportunity.
Things get really tough and you don’t like where you’re at, you can either cash it in or you can either work while you wait.
Those are the two options everywhere you go. So even if the opportunity isn’t today or tomorrow, if you don’t get good and you don’t improve yourself, it’s never going to come back around.
And so I think these guys really understand that. We got special personalities…Guys that weren’t traveling, they were here throwing sim games, they’re working on the field. The guys that didn’t pitch yesterday will be on the mound today getting their work in. So literally, today’s another opportunity.
Someone wants to roll out there and throw two innings with five punchies and is in the zone on every pitch, it makes you kind of reconsider, hey, what are we going to do for the weekend, right? And so I think just throughout the year, them committing to this is a 40-man team, it’s not a 30-man team, they give us 40 [players] for a reason.
It’s because we want to see guys get better and use, at the end of the year, who’s the best 30 to go into competition with? And so, man, they’ve done good. And I could be a little bit naive because I want them to stay there. I want them to be mentally engaged.
But I think so far so good. And when you win ball games, it’s easier to be part of something when you’re winning, right? And when you’re not winning, it’s easier to poke holes in what’s going on.
But the kids have been wonderful. It’s tough because they worked their whole lives to be in these situations, and they worked their whole lives to get opportunities and as long as they get convinced that practice is an opportunity, you got a chance to keep the culture right.
Cats On A Plane
Sabins offered his analysis of the upcoming home series vs. Arizona:.
Sabins: I think our guys will be ready. They’ll play hard. They’ll be excited. They know the quality of opponent that we’re going to face, so they have an opportunity to show kind of what they’re made of and what they’re all about at home.
We only got one Big 12 game in, and so I think our players know that we have something to prove and the fans in this community have become a baseball community.
I think they now recognize who are these teams, who are these historical powers. It’s pretty fun, man, having Arizona fly across the country into Morgantown. That’s cool.
No Kittens
Sabins had a sober assessment of his upcoming opponent.
They’ve been really good on the mound. Last year, they were a top 10 team in the nation in ERA strikeouts to walks. They do a nice job with the pitchers. They have a potential first rounder at shortstop who’s kind of an electric player.
Overall, very easy place to recruit. It’s got good weather. Historically, they’re a great program. It’s a recruiting hotbed, so they have a lot of talent. They’ll have five-star players all across the field.
Nasty Mound Cats
Sabins: [Arizona Pitching] It’ll be high-end stuff/
Their pitching coaches do a really nice job with development and they have a lot of talent. We’ve recruited against them with several portal players in the past. So there will be a lot of guys that roll out there with power stuff, 94 to 100 with nasty breaking balls and plus change ups, so you’ll get to see some firepower this weekend.
Homey’s Happy Hour
The 18-1 coach urged Morgantown to rock on Friday night.
Sabins: Come out, drink some beers, be loud, show up to the ball game.
That’s a huge home field advantage and we need it. We’ve been doing this for 12 years, 13, 14 years in this league where we were the ones always traveling across the country.
We were having the connecting flights go to Stillwater and Norman and Dallas and going across the country to play everybody else.
And so for the first time, there are West Coast teams that are flying into Morgantown, and we need to make it tough on these guys.
We need it loud.
We need it to be packed.
We need it to bring the energy, because we have something that’s really special and unique and we want this to be the hardest place to play in the Big 12.
And we’re capable of that, legitimately having the best home situation in our league.
We need to have The John Fredericks Show day at the ballpark where you get free beers until the fourth inning, something like that.
John: Ok, I’m in. This series will forecast the rest of the season.
