MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — As someone who is a massive supporter and advocate for WVU baseball, I am now officially concerned that they are on the cusp of letting a Big 12 title and hosting a Regional slip through their fingers. I swear, sometimes I feel like being a diehard WVU fan is just waiting for that other shoe to drop and be disappointed.
For those of us who have been watching the teams last 7 games we all had to feel like we saw a rerun last night. WVU went into the bottom of the 9th in the Little Apple against K-State up 7-2 in what is a crucial series for the WVU’s Big 12 title hopes, only to give the game away once again and lose 8-7. Now I’m a HUGE Sabins fan, but how many times can we let the same thing happen, especially in the closing stretch of the season? We saw the same thing happen twice in the last few weeks, and to make things even worse, it happened against Pitt and Marshall. While those game don’t have an impact on the Big 12 race, you’d think losing to 2 rivals in that fashion would be enough of a wake-up call to fire this team up and get back on track. Unfortunately, that was not the case last night and you have to wonder how this team and coaching staff is holding up mentally as they look to close a historic baseball season and make a deep run in the post season.
I have to preface, while losing to 3 rivals in last several weeks (Pitt, Marshall, PSU) by a combined total of 3 runs really bothered me, I was hopeful this team was just really focused on the bigger prize of a Big 12 title. That was reinforced as we took 2 of 3 against an always tough Texas Tech team. After the loss last night, and the way the game was lost, I’m now very concerned the pressure of the title and hosting a regional is beginning to weigh on this team. After all, WVU has now lost 5 out of their last 10 games when they only had 4 losses the whole season prior to that 10-game stretch.
As the Big 12 race sits today, WVU is still sitting with a 3-game conference lead with 5 games to go. Now if WVU would have found a way to win last night, they’d be sitting with a 4-game lead with 5 to go – huge difference. A win last night would have made this team a bit more comfortable and possibly relieved some of the pressure we have to think their feeling now. The loss has also lit a fire under KSU, who’s only sitting a game outside the standings of the teams behind WVU, so we know were going to get their best these next 2 days. Should WVU be able to pull out a win today at 5 p.m. EST against KSU, they’ll be that much closer to that Big 12 title. If they happen to lose, I’d consider the Big 12 race wide open with 2nd place Kansas coming to Morgantown May 15th for the season finale. While the energy at Kendrick Family Ballpark would be electric for that series, I’d prefer not to take a chance and have the Mountaineers close out a share of the Big 12 title in the Little Apple. Either way, I’ll be watching the game today and cheering on the team as always and just trying to appreciate how special of a season this has been. Let’s Go Mountaineers!
Follow Bernie Mac – X: @BernieMac_VOM
