Before West Virginia hits the road to the Clemson Regional on Friday, the Mountaineers will have multiple key decisions about who will be available to pitch this weekend.
Two of the key decisions involve Carson Estridge and Gavin Van Kempen, each facing a different outlook.
Estridge and Van Kempen did not appear in any of the two games WVU played in the Big 12 Tournament, with each of their last appearances coming during WVU's series against Kansas.
Estridge exited on May 17th against the Jayhawks with apparent discomfort. Sabins confirmed as such, and they are trying to work out the kinks before this weekend with him.
"I think Estridge was not available during the Big 12 tournament. We were hoping and praying that he would be. And so we didn't count him out necessarily, depending on how deep we went in that tournament. So Estridge had been our closer, the second guy to win a game in a big moment, was not available," Sabins said.
Estridge had been ultra-reliable for WVU this season until the final two weeks of the regular season. Estridge's ERA ballooned to 5.55 on the year, but he went a stretch of eight appearances in a row without allowing a run. Estridge threw a bullpen on Sunday and will pitch again on Tuesday before a decision is made.
"He threw a bullpen yesterday and it went well.He's going to Sim game to hitters tomorrow.And so if that goes well, we will feel like we just picked up an important arm for our season," Sabins said.
Van Kempen's last month has been pretty rocky, as he struggled to stay healthy, not pitching more than two innings in a game since April 18th.
Van Kempen, who at one time was WVU's Saturday starter this season, is taking longer to get back and his status is more in doubt for this weekend.
He threw yesterday and is working to get ready for the regional. If that's a realistic possibility or not. It appears to be further away than an Estridge. I can't really count on that one at that point. [Van Kempen] was a weekend starter , and Estridge was our closer. But I don't feel good about where GVK would be at," Sabins said.
Overall, Sabins would not be opposed to having Van Kempen pitch this weekend, but it's more of him being put into the highest-pressure moments with not a lot of recent innings under his belt.
"If he did feel like he was healthy, we would be finding out if he really is in the biggest games of the season. So it's just a tough position to be in," Sabins said.
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