For the first time all season, West Virginia was swept this past weekend against Kansas. Now with the most important baseball ahead, the Mountaineers are hoping to flush it as they enter the Big 12 Tournament.
It was a weekend of firsts and not in a good way for WVU. The Mountaineers were shut out for the first time in 2025, and then were swept for the first time this season as well. Coincidentally, it happened on the final weekend of the regular season, as from here on out it's postseason baseball for the Mountaineers.
"I mean, definitely frustrating for sure. At the end of the day, we are Big 12 champs. Not the way we wanted to do it this weekend, but [head] Coach [Steve Sabins] was telling us, just got to put it behind us," West Virginia catcher Logan Sauve said.
Sauve was one of two First Team All-Big 12 selections, as he was a force behind the plate for the Mountaineers. He's been around for West Virginia, as he's been on each of WVU's last two NCAA Tournament teams, including last year's Super Regional squad.
"We've been so well all season, last two weeks have been a rough stretch all around, but you know, we have a lot of trust in each other and coaching staff does a great job getting us prepared, so I have no doubt that we'll be ready to go when we go to Arlington," Sauve said.
A new piece to the puzzle this season was starting pitcher Jack Kartsonas. Kartsonas was an All-Big 12 Second Team selection, but he's confident in WVU's ability to bounce back this week.
"We got an opportunity on Thursday. It's baseball, you know, the best thing about baseball is you get to play again, right, right away. So if it would have happened in April or if we would have got swept opening weekend, doesn't matter. It's still the same mindset. Come out in Arlington and play clean baseball, and you know you're playing against the baseball. So I like our odds," Kartsonas said.
West Virginia enters the Big 12 Tournament having lost six of their final seven games, with five of those losses coming to Big 12 teams. Still, the Mountaineers are the No. 1 overall seed, and Sabins believes his team needs to be able to remember that and then flush what happened the final two weekends of the regular season.
"You have to compartmentalize this regular season, and we were the best out of 14 teams. So you guys just won that, stamped that. We lost the last three games, we celebrated, we got a trophy, we got to be at our home for the final regular season series, sleep in our own beds. But that's over now. It is over. Turn the page, congratulations, ups and downs, hard fought, and then you have to move on to this next chapter. So I think it's important to have some of those moments where it allows you to probably mentally move forward," Sabins said.
Sabins wanted his team to get away following their series concluding on Saturday. The Mountaineers had a lighter practice on Tuesday in Arlington, ahead of their game on Thursday.
"When you go through this many games of tight games and close games, and a lot of the ones even that we won were high stress, and then you play for a title, and then you lose games, I think mentally, obviously, getting away is super important as well. So I would say both are critical this time of year. And [Sunday], we told the guys, we really don't want them to come to the facility. We really don't want you to go throw plyo balls or lift or find your swing in the BPC. We have a little bit of a window here where we need the guys to get away," Sabins said.
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