Flashback to February, and West Virginia head coach Steve Sabins earned his first win in WVU's first game of the season. Flash forward to Thursday, and Sabins and the Mountaineers won the Big 12 regular season title, their second title in three years.
"Just gracious, humbled to be here, thankful for our staff, thankful for our players. I like to work, I really like doing what I do. I love my family, I got no hobbies, I got limited amount of friends. So to be able to come to work every day and do this and compete and try to win and help influence young people and stay in a routine and workouts, those are all things that I love to do. So it is really special," Sabins said.
The Mountaineers entered their three-game series against Kansas needing just a win or an Arizona State loss this weekend to clinch the Big 12. While WVU didn't win, ASU lost, paving the way for WVU to take the Big 12 crown. Sabins said there are no mixed emotions about how his team accomplished this goal, but rather that they actually did it.
"No mixed emotions for me because winning is really hard, and life can be hard. Winning titles at West Virginia in a 14-team league that is not a mixed feeling for me. That's a beautiful thing. There are 14 teams that are competing. Some with unbelievable recruiting areas, some with bigger budgets, some with more college world series appearances, some with more first rounders, some with more tradition, it’s hard. If you can do hard things and accomplish things that have never been done in program history, there’s no mixed feelings for me. Just feelings of gratitude that I can be a part of it," Sabins said.
Sabins has been around for the rise of WVU baseball from a small program entering the Big 12, to eventually hosting a regional, to being title winner in 2023, to making a Super Regional in 2024.
Now, in his first year, it's his team that wins the first outright title in program history.
The Mountaineers did not make it easy on themselves by any means. They had multiple games canceled due to wildfires against Oklahoma State. They faced a late-game deficit on the road against BYU to come back and win the series. They came back from trailing Texas Tech to win that series. Sabins knows what his team went through to get to this point this year, making this moment that much sweeter.
"It's fun for me as a coach. You look back at some of these games that we played, and there's been so many amazing regular season games," Sabins said. "And it's like, man, that game three at Texas Tech, or after the first game at Tech, winning that second one after things weren't going our way with the weather delays and those kind of things. BYU, trailing 15 to 7 and coming back and winning that ballgame. We dodged wildfires in Stillwater and changed hotels, and then played a one-game series against Oklahoma State and won a game. So it depends on how you slice it.
"But if you've been around like you guys have the entirety of the season, it's like that Oklahoma State game that we opened the season with, that just won the Mountaineers a title. Coming back down 15-7 against BYU and showing what the team's made of, that just won the Mountaineers a title. And so those are the moments for me that I'm proud of."
Sabins and the Mountaineers will now try to become an NCAA Tournament regional host for the second time in program history, but they will need to continue to win to do so.
WVU fell 3-0 to Kansas on Thursday, the first time they were shutout all season. They have two more games against the Jayhawks before they head to the Big 12 Tournament next week.
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