Morgantown, WV — West Virginia baseball jumped up a massive 7 spots in the latest rankings according to D1 baseball, moving from #24 all the way up to #17. Many of us following the WVU baseball team this year knew they were having a special season, but for some reason they weren’t getting the respect in the polls that we felt they deserved. How special of a season are they having you ask? Very special – to find winning percentages that are even close to what we’re seeing this season you’d have to go all the way back to the 1963 and 64 teams who finished 30-3 and 24-5 under Steve Harrick. Also, the Mountaineers have won 40 games one other time in program history, 2023 when they finished 40-20 under Randy Mazey. Should they continue their winning ways, this WVU team could cruise by that all time program win total. When D1 Baseball was challenged via X on why WVU hadn’t been ranked earlier, they said and I quote “West Virginia needs to play somebody with a pulse to get ranked.” Well, I guess sitting on top of the Big 12 and riding a 14 game winning streak into their game tonight versus PSU was enough to qualify as a pulse.
For all of us who were a bit worried when Randy Mazey retired, I think we all need to pause and appreciate how special of a season that Steve Sabins is putting together with this young and talented Mountaineer baseball team. He’s effortlessly stepped in his first year, replacing a legend of the program in Randy Mazey who essentially took our team from obsolescence to contender in the Big 12 prior to his retirement. Sabins has stepped in brilliantly to lead West Virginia baseball to what could be the most successful season in program history.
If you follow West Virginia baseball, you’ll see the energy at Kendrick Park is electrifying night in and night out no matter who we’re playing. The fans have been absolutely fantastic this season and its not uncommon to see prominent people from both the athletic department and administration attending games. I also want to take a minute to give a huge shout out to Randy Mazey. The guy is a total class act and still very much around the games and the program which I love – what a true Mountaineer! I think it’s safe to say West Virginia has officially become a college baseball town. I love the energy from the team, the supporters, Coach Mazey and the town in general. It’s simply fantastic to see the evolution of the baseball program coming to fruition for WVU.
West Virginia is set to play a tough Penn State team tonight who is sitting at 24 – 13 as of this week. The all-time series between the two is 6 to 7 in favor of Penn State with West Virginia baseball taking the last two handily. While the teams on a roll, we can never look past a hungry team in a rivalry game.
If the Mountaineers be able to get by Penn State and continue their amazing win streak, West Virginia will continue its Big 12 slate with twelve conference games remaining while sitting on a 3 game 1st place lead. Most notably, the Mountaineers have 2nd place Kansas coming to town toward the end of their Big 12 slate . Should West Virginia be able to hold on to their conference lead, it will be West Virginia baseball’s first outright conference title since joining the Big 12 which would be an absolutely amazing accomplishment, especially in Sabins first year. Again, I hope all the fans appreciate how special this season has been for West Virginia baseball and continue to show them the amazing support they’ve been showing all season no matter how the rest of the year plays out. The players, coaches, and team overall sure deserve it as they finish out which truly become a historic season for WVU baseball. Let’s go Mountaineers!
