GRANVILLE — As the No. 12 WVU baseball team continues to climb new heights each week in the national rankings, assistant coach Steve Sabins is quick to offer up a reminder.
“He sends out in our group chats: Don’t drink the poison,” WVU outfielder Braden Barry said Wednesday after the No. 12 Mountaineers mercy-ruled rival Pitt 10-0 at Mon County Ballpark. “He tells us don’t buy into any of that. We still have a lot of the season left. It’s just us going out there playing our game every day.”
This Mountaineer program has enjoyed success before, but not exactly this group and never exactly this much success.
“The first time we got ranked this year, we immediately lost, so that was kind of a kick in the face,” said WVU second baseman J.J. Wetherholt, who had three hits, including a three-run home run against the Panthers (20-22).
That kick in the face has turned into a lesson well learned, it would seem.
The Mountaineers (34-11) have now won nine in a row and their No. 12 national ranking is the highest in program history.
It’s six spots higher than last year’s consensus No. 1 team in Tennessee, 12 higher than traditional power Cal State Fullerton and its four national championships.
When those programs sniff the top 10, no big deal. One would think it would be a monumental deal for the Mountaineers, yet it’s not.
“We’re getting used to that type of atmosphere,” is the way WVU manager Randy Mazey put it. “Now they’re not in la-la land. They’ve experienced it and can be calm in spite of that.
“You don’t want to play according to results, but you can’t ignore results. Since you can’t ignore it, we talk about it. We talk about the importance of the process, not the importance of results.”
That team-wide focus is what makes a season like the one Wetherholt is enjoying take on a different life.
His three hits against Pitt raised his average up to .470 and Wetherholt leads the team with 12 home runs, 51 RBIs and 32 stolen bases.
If all of that came on a team struggling to reach .500, that’s one thing, except now Wetherholt’s season is just a large part of a bigger story of a program challenging for a Big 12 title and beyond.
“With the season I’m having, it would be easy to get a solo mindset and only care about yourself,” Wetherholt said. “With how good the other guys are playing, I’m playing for them. I’m playing for everybody. It’s like, I don’t care how I do, I just want to help the team win. That’s the biggest thing. With the way the team is playing, it takes the pressure off of you and I can just go out there and have fun.”
In front of a sold-out crowd of 4,070 on a cold and rainy night, the Mountaineers had plenty of fun in beating their rival for the fourth straight game.
Caleb McNeely blasted his 10th home run of the season. Landon Wallace added three hits and three RBIs and Carson Estridge and Gavin Van Kempen combined for WVU’s third shutout of the season.
Estridge (3-0) earned the win, giving up three hits and striking out seven over four innings.
The freshman from Haymarket, Va. put a unique perspective on this heightened level of success the Mountaineers are experiencing.
“No, never expected this,” he said. “It’s been awesome. It’s really a good time. The season has been special. It’s awesome.”
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