West Virginia wants to use all avenues to fill out the baseball roster.
The Mountaineers had plenty of success last season with Division II transfer pitcher Derek Clark posting an 8-3 overall record with four complete games across 97.2 innings. He boasted a 3.23 earned run average with 91 punch-outs across his 14 appearances for West Virginia.
That led to third-team all-American honors and being named a first-team all-Big 12 selection in his lone year with the program.
Now, the Mountaineers are hoping that lightning strikes twice with opening day starter Griffin Kirn coming from the Division II level and pitching a strong debut with only 1 run given up across 5.2 innings with five strikeouts in his debut with the Mountaineers.
“Ultimate trust to get a guy that hasn’t been in your program and to have him show up and take the mound and the ball for the first time in a new season. A season we’re excited about and believe that we’ll be competitive in and say this guy gets the ball,” head coach Steve Sabins said.
The coaching staff picked Kirn because he is a high character, high trust and high talent player in the program despite his unconventional background to get to Morgantown. And while Kirn still has a lot more to prove after just one start under his belt, the hope is that he can follow a similar path.
Sabins and the coaching staff are proud of the ways that they have been able to identify talent regardless of what level they are from and bring them into the program.
“If you want to have elite talent here you have to buy low, sell high. Find markets that aren’t tapped and go places others aren’t willing to go, research different,” Sabins said. “If we pretend that West Virginia is the same institution as everybody else trying to compete for national titles we will finish second more times than not so I think that’s been our philosophy over the last decade.”
That means leaving no stone unturned when it comes to finding potential pieces that can come in and help whether that’s from Division II, Division III, Division III junior colleges, Puerto Rico or Canada.
“We have to work harder to find players in different ways,” Sabins said.
West Virginia is a baseball school situated a bit further Northeast and because of that not as many players have accidentally swung by campus or played there on the national scene of recruiting. Not to mention that the state’s smaller population means that going elsewhere is a necessity.
That means that West Virginia doesn’t try to limit who and where they target players in order to find the best pieces possible in order to put the best product on the field.
“We’re working to make sure we don’t miss hidden gems in recruiting,” Sabins said.
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