WVU in a make or break situation
Three words were embroidered on the back of the West Virginia baseball team’s t-shirts heading into this season.
“Here we come.”
This slogan represents the team’s mindset heading into this season as high expectations surrounded the Mountaineers with multiple starters back from last year’s NCAA Regional run, the program’s first in 21 years.
West Virginia’s season has been highlighted by inconsistencies all across the board in hitting, pitching and fielding, but through 34 games, the Mountaineers are at .500 with a 17-17 record and currently sit second-to-last in the Big 12 with a 2-7 conference record.
The team is currently No. 25 in the RPI and had won four out of its previous five games before dropping two out of three games to Oklahoma State this past weekend, but then rebounding with a 9-2 win over Canisius Wednesday evening.
“As we talk about after every game, we’re trying to catch a rhythm and trying to catch a rhythm and hopefully this is the start of it,” Mazey said after last week’s 12-1 win over Pitt. “We got an opportunity to make some noise right now.”
West Virginia’s bats have emerged lately as the team has racked up a combined 44 hits in its past four games. Seven out of the team’s starters had at least one hit during the team’s win over Canisius.
“We’re swinging the bat pretty well right now,” Mazey said. “We have been for the last eight or 10 games.”
On the mound, the Mountaineers have struggled to find a solid weekend rotation with usual Friday starter BJ Myers making more appearances out of the bullpen and sophomore right-hander and Saturday starter, Alek Manoah, struggling during most of his starts.
Despite their issues, Myers and Manoah have found some success coming out of the bullpen and the team has found some solid starting pitching in junior Braden Zarbnisky and sophomore Isaiah Kearns.
West Virginia looks to have the tools to make another NCAA Tournament run, but will have to develop more consistency and find the ability to pull off Big 12 series wins in order to accomplish this feat.
The good news for the Mountaineers is that the toughest part of their schedule, which included series matchups against three of the Big 12’s four top teams in Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, looks to be over, but that doesn’t mean the road ahead is a simple one.
A three-game series against last place Kansas State is on deck for this weekend followed by another home series against Texas. The Mountaineers still have to travel to both Kansas and TCU and host midweek non-conference games before wrapping up the regular season at home against Baylor.
“Everybody can beat you, but on the other hand, you can beat everybody,” Mazey said. “That’s the beauty of the league, you don’t get any weekends off. This one definitely isn’t one of them.”
Based off last year’s NCAA Tournament pool, West Virginia won’t find itself in the tournament if the team is at or below .500. Only four teams made the NCAA Tournament last season with a .500 or worse record in UMBC (23-23), Holy Cross (23-25), Radford (27-30) and Texas Southern (20-32).
Each of these four, non-Power Five teams won its conference tournament, meaning that West Virginia’s chances to earn an at-large bid with a .500 or worse record are slim to none, no matter how high the team is ranked in the RPI.
Each conference series looks to be a must-win for the Mountaineers looking forward if the team hopes to make another run at the NCAA Tournament appearance and live up to those three words on the back of their team t-shirts, but it starts this weekend against the Wildcats.
“This could be a make or break weekend for us,” Mazey said. “That’s the importance of it. We have a good weekend, we can get right back into the mix in the Big 12. We have a bad weekend, then it’s going to be a big time uphill battle.”
West Virginia vs. Kansas State Matchups:
Friday (6:30 p.m.): BJ Myers (0-1, 5.08 ERA) vs. Justin Heskett (2-5, 6.34 ERA)
Saturday (4 p.m.): Kade Strowd (3-3, 4.83 ERA) vs. Caleb Littlejim (2-1, 6.55 ERA)
Sunday (1 p.m.): TBD
