Latest news with #SteveSabins
Washington Post
2 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
West Virginia rallies to beat Kentucky 13-12. wins second consecutive regional
CLEMSON, S.C. — Ben Lumsden had four RBIs, Gavin Kelly drove in three runs and Armani Guzman hit a two-out RBI single to cap a six-run rally in the eighth inning as West Virginia beat Kentucky 13-12 on Sunday night to win the Clemson Regional. West Virginia, which won the first regional last season, advanced to its second consecutive super regional in Steve Sabins' first year as coach. Sabins spent nine seasons as an assistant — three as associate head coach — for Randy Mazey, who retired after 12 seasons with the Mountaineers.
Dominion Post
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
No. 24 WVU back in NCAA baseball tournament for third consecutive time, faces Kentucky
MORGANTOWN — West Virginia repeated baseball history Monday, earning its third consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament for just the second time in the program's lifetime. 'It's been 61 years since we've made back-to-back-to-back regionals,' WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. 'It's an honor to be the leader of the program when that happens. Coach (Randy) Mazey had a lot to do with that. To be able to continue what we started and keep winning ball games and keep making regionals, at the end of the day, however you want to slice it, it's about getting to this tournament.' The last time WVU played in three consecutive NCAA tournaments was 1961-64, when the Mountaineers made it four consecutive seasons under former coach Steve Harrick. The 24th-ranked Mountaineers (41-14) got into the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Clemson, S.C. Regional, where the host Tigers (44-16) will be the favorite to advance. The Mountaineers will face Kentucky (29-24) out of the SEC on Friday in the opening game, while 12th-ranked Clemson will host USC Upstate. Kentucky defeated WVU 10-0 in regional competition in the 2023 NCAA tournament. The regional round is double elimination with the first-game winners playing each other, while the first-game losers play each other in an elimination game. The first team to three victories wins the regional. It is a format the Mountaineers know well, having won the Tucson, Ariz. Regional last season as the No. 3 seed to advance to the school's first-ever super regional. 'We're no slouch by any means,' WVU outfielder Kyle West said. 'People will look at the scouting reports and they'll see some of the best offensive numbers we could have. They'll look at everything and know that no team can be taken lightly at this point of the year.' Kentucky was one of a record 13 teams from the SEC to earn a spot in the NCAA field of 64, with eight of the 13 earning a regional host position, meaning one of the top 16 seeds. Clemson, which lost in the finals of the ACC tournament against North Carolina, was awarded the No. 11 overall seed. Whoever advances out of the Clemson Regional will advance to play the winner of the Baton Rouge (La.) Regional, where LSU — the No. 6 overall seed — is the host. 'You have an opportunity to do special things, once you get your foot in the door,' Sabins said. 'We've said from the very beginning our team has been built on opportunity. This is another opportunity for our team. If you get into the tournament, you've got a shot. That's all you can ask for.' By making it into the NCAA tournament, Sabins earned an automatic one-year extension, and is now signed with the Mountaineers through the 2030 season that will earn him an extra $525,000 for that season. His contract is now essentially a six-year deal worth $2.775 million. The NCAA tournament also serves as one final opportunity for the Mountaineers to reset and possibly gain back the momentum they had at the start of the season. It certainly wasn't a strong finish. WVU enters the NCAA tournament having lost nine of its last 13 games. The Mountaineers were eliminated in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament, 12-1, by Arizona and were shut out twice by Kansas in the final three-game series of the regular season. On the plus side, WVU did win the Big 12 regular season title and finished with a program-record 41 wins. Sabins earned a $30,000 bonus for winning the regular season championship and another $25,000 bonus for making it into the NCAA regional round. 'I felt good going in that we were in the tournament,' Sabins said. 'I didn't know exactly where we were going to go, but our resumé certainly showed we were a tournament contender after winning the Big 12 regular-season title.'
Dominion Post
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
WVU eyes opportunity to host NCAA regional, but knows its case was hurt by late-season setbacks
ARLINGTON, Texas – First impressions are important, but last impressions matter, too, especially when it comes to promoting yourself before a committee. That doesn't bode well for No. 23 WVU's chances of hosting an NCAA baseball regional next weekend. The top-seeded Mountaineers (41-14) lost to fourth-seeded Arizona, 12-1, in the Big 12 Conference semifinals on Friday night at Globe Life Field. WVU has now lost six of their last eight games, and they are 1-6 against the teams seeded two through five in the Big 12 tournament (the Mountaineers did not play No. 3 TCU or No. 5 Arizona State this season). 'You can't make excuses for yourself – you've just got to get ready to smash some baseballs,' said WVU junior Sam White, who will likely be heading to his third consecutive NCAA tournament in as many years with the Mountaineers. A regular season conference championship and the most wins in program history are part of the Mountaineers' case to host an NCAA regional in Morgantown next weekend. 'We'd like to play at home,' WVU first-year head coach Steve Sabins said. 'We have the best fan base in the country. We'd love to celebrate with the people of Morgantown and West Virginia.' With the loss to Arizona, the Mountaineers no longer control that destiny. A Big 12 tournament championship, on the heels of the regular season title, would have made a strong case to become one of 16 teams to host a regional. The regional hosts will be announced Sunday night, while the entire bracket will be released at noon on Monday. WVU's RPI – one of the contributing factors utilized by the committee – is 27th, which means even a tournament championship may not have guaranteed a regional in Morgantown. While playing at the Kendrick Family Ballpark would be welcomed by the players, coaches and fans, the Mountaineers have proven that it's not the only way to reach a super regional. Last season, WVU reached the first super regional in program history by winning the Tucson Regional – something they managed to do without facing the host team, Arizona.
Dominion Post
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
ANALYSIS: If not WVU, then who wins Big 12 baseball tournament?
MORGANTOWN — With a move to single elimination and no team ranked above No. 23 in the country, but with six teams in the top 35 of the RPI, the Big 12 baseball tournament is wide open. The 23rd-ranked Mountaineers have never been in the position as the Big 12's top seed before. As far as that goes, No. 25 Kansas has never been as high as the No. 2 seed it earned this season. The league has the possibility of putting eight teams into the NCAA tournament, but there's also a chance the league gets no regional hosts. 'Nobody can go full steam and the only thing that matters is winning the (Big 12) tournament, unless you're not going to play in a regional and you have to win it,' WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. 'We have six teams that the only thing that matters is the (conference) tournament, and you have another half that wants to win, but doesn't have to win the tournament. That's the difference, essentially. That's why it can get a little bit wanky in pitching and setting people up.' With all of that in mind, if the Mountaineers don't sweep their way through the Big 12 tournament, there are a few others in line to hoist the trophy. If not WVU, then who? Here are your top possibilities: The Jayhawks (42-14) put together a historic season under Big 12 Coach of the Year Dan Fitzgerald, who has Kansas in line to play in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014, when it was also a regional host. Kansas enters the tournament on a five-game winning streak, which includes a sweep of WVU to end the regular season. The Jayhawks' pitching was the story in that series, coming up with two shutouts. The rest of the season was about Kansas' offense. Two more home runs will give the Jayhawks 100 dingers on the season and Jackson Hauge and Brady Ballinger – a combined 33 home runs – form the league's top one-two punch. What can go wrong: The Jayhawks may wind up with the toughest quarterfinal draw with a potential matchup against seventh-seeded Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are the defending Big 12 tournament champs, were the preseason favorite to win the Big 12 this season and have won 11 of their last 14 games entering the tournament. The Cowboys have played in 11 consecutive NCAA tournaments, which is the fourth longest streak in the country. That was in jeopardy in mid-April, right before the Cowboys started to play like the team that was expected to win the Big 12 at the start of the season. Oklahoma State is 27-22 heading into the tournament, which doesn't look like being worthy of the NCAA tourney, but the Cowboys played the most difficult schedule of any Big 12 team this season. It's that strength of schedule (13th in the nation) that has them in position to play in another NCAA regional. Also, when you have the league's top MLB draft prospect – Nolan Schubart – anything can happen. Schubart has five home runs and has driven in nine over his last six games. Then there is also starting pitcher Harrison Bodendorf, who went 10-1 with a 2.43 ERA this season. Need to know: Oklahoma State is 10-5 in the Big 12 tournament since it was moved to Globe Life Field in 2022. No other Big 12 team can match that type of success in the league tournament. The Horned Frogs (37-17) have the Big 12's top freshman in outfielder Sawyer Strosnider (.360, 10 HR, 50 RBI) and quite possibly the top 1-2 starting pitching combination in Tommy LaPour (7-2, 3.11 ERA) and Mason Brassfield (5-1, 3.59 ERA). And TCU is 6-2 at Globe Life Field over the past two Big 12 tournaments, including a tournament title in 2023. At the moment, the Horned Frogs are projected as the lone Big 12 regional host in the NCAA tournament, according to Baseball America and D1 Baseball. Fitting right in: The Horned Frogs played a great schedule, are accustomed to success in the Big 12 tournament, and when you look at the Big 12 stats, they aren't bad at anything. If WVU doesn't win the Big 12 tournament, then TCU would be a pretty good bet.
Dominion Post
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
COLUMN: Steve Sabins believes there is another chapter to be written on this season, but it's hard to believe that at the moment
GRANVILLE — In the mind of Steve Sabins, a baseball season is a story written in chapters, rather than one giant conglomerative view. 'Now you're speaking my language,' he says when the topic is brought up. What has happened to the 17th-ranked Mountaineers since April 30 is unbecoming of a program striving to reach an elite level of success. Kansas put an exclamation point to that statement on Saturday with a 7-0 victory inside Kendrick Family Ballpark. The Jayhawks completed a three-game sweep with the win and WVU has now lost 8 of its last 11 games. Yet that isn't the whole story. No more than a crew of guys going aboard The Pequod is the entire plot of 'Moby Dick' or a family watching over the Overlook Hotel for the winter is the whole point of 'The Shining.' There has been plenty of good that has come in Sabins' first season as the Mountaineers head coach. Honestly, 'plenty of good' kind of diminishes what was actually accomplished. The program climbed another rung in the ladder of national respectability, set a season attendance record and put its name right there among the best in the SEC and ACC in the national polls. And, oh yeah, the Mountaineers won a second Big 12 regular-season title. Even if that fact came more on a whimper rather than a thunderous arrival, WVU isn't going to give the trophy back. 'We've said we want to electrify the state. We wanted to try and compete for everything,' is how Sabins puts it. 'We wanted to make the community, the state and the university proud. Those are our big goals.' Done and done. But now the bigger question remains: Are these Mountaineers (40-13, 19-9 Big 12) done? As in, stick a fork in them. That's the chapter of the book they're currently in, and it's been nothing short of painful to watch it transpire. It wasn't just losing to in-state rival Marshall. It was losing to Marshall in the bottom of the ninth inning in an error-filled moment of torture. It wasn't just losing to hated Pitt. It was giving up a four-run lead in the bottom of the ninth inning against hated Pitt. And how does a team that was in the same conversation as the likes of Tennessee and Florida State in terms of postseason positioning even put itself in a position to lose to schools like Marshall and Pitt to begin with? Then came losing a five-run lead in the ninth inning and getting walked-off against Kansas State. And that Big 12 title became official only after Arizona State lost rather than West Virginia winning. 'The last week or two has been a different chapter,' Sabins admits. Is this the final chapter? Sabins says no. In his position, he has to say that. That doesn't mean he's wrong. 'Now it's about how do we write this story, because the truth is the story isn't written at all,' Sabins said. 'We're still in the regular season. It's about playing really well late. It happens all the time. You see teams that have success late. They got hot and found something.' There is a single-elimination Big 12 tournament next week and then the NCAA tournament. Those are opportunities to not only wipe the slate clean, but to make those ninth-inning disasters feel like they happened years ago. It's here that I'm supposed to chime in with my two cents and tell you what's going to happen next. Is this team still worth the investment of your time and attention? Honestly, I have no idea. I don't know how anyone could answer that question one way or the other. 'What we do have to do is play good baseball eventually,' Sabins said. 'We have to be in a good position to play good baseball and be energized and focused and have intent.' If there is indeed another chapter to be written about these Mountaineers, just based on how this season has gone so far, it's likely to be a page-turner at the very least. 'For me, it's about how do you find that something?' Sabins asked. 'That's the puzzle. That's the pieces we're trying to figure out.'
