Through 16 games, West Virginia has only fallen in just one of those games. That success has created a swagger for the Mountaineers that they're carrying into their biggest series of the season thus far.
West Virginia hits the road this weekend, and they do so as they're set to open Big 12 Conference play, facing Oklahoma State.
West Virginia has played 16 games so far this season and only five have come at the friendly confines of Kendrick Family Ballpark in Morgantown. Conversely, Oklahoma State has played 16 games, seven at home, and the rest in Texas.
The Mountaineers have had success, which is giving them confidence, but what's also spurring their confidence is how an offseason in West Virginia is different than the offseason for other baseball powerhouses around the country.
"I think our whole thing is built on toughness to some extent. We train in the early spring in sleet and snow and ice and oftentimes, it's a frozen hell for a baseball player who's trying to throw 95, trying to hit 95 in the ice. And so I think a little bit of that mentality is like, wherever we show up, we're going to try to play with more grit than anybody. And that's a West Virginia thing. I mean, I think every sport and every coach forever has talked about the grit of the state and what this thing's about. But it's just a reality in our sport. There's definitely guys that are training in shorts on side fields with manicured grass when we have snow banks around the outfield, and it's 24 degrees with wind chill at 16. And so I think it makes for a little different mentality of our kids," head coach Steve Sabins said.
Sabins is no stranger to Oklahoma State, serving as an assistant on their staff years ago. Now, he's heading into his first Big 12 series against his former group.
Sabins' squad has had a lot of success in the early part of the season, but he knows that success is meaningless when it comes to the bigger picture, if they can't continue that during conference play.
Carrying over that success to this weekend and beyond starts with treating every series as the same level of significance, whether it's a mid-week on a Tuesday, or a Friday night game versus a ranked opponent.
I think you just want the guys to treat every series the same. And we've preached that from the beginning. Whether you're playing Towson on a Tuesday, Oklahoma State on a Friday night, Marshall on a Wednesday, really working to turn the scoreboard off. Ignore the rankings, the preseason, the postseason, the individual accolades. If we play clean baseball, we're a really good team. We're a talented team that has an opportunity to have success on a regular basis. And so wherever we're at, trying to eliminate the opponent as much as we can and just play our brand of baseball," Sabins said.
West Virginia's brand of baseball has been of sheer dominance both on the mound and at the plate so far. WVU is second in the Big 12 in batting average and third in runs scored, while their pitching staff is third in the league in ERA, and has given up the fewest hits in the league this season.
"So going 15-1 and having a good batting average, and 18 pitchers that contribute with a sub-three ERA, that's not winning. That doesn't mean anything. Those are individuals that are accomplishing things that are fun. But no season has ever been won before the conference started, so none of that matters. That's all kind of poison, eyewash kind of stuff," Sabins said.
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