GRANVILLE — Reese Bassinger simply pulled up a corner of the box score Saturday night, as he began what seemed like a rather simple explanation.
The WVU relief pitcher, who had just come off the bench cold to throw seven innings to hand the 13th-ranked Mountaineers a crucial 3-2 win against Texas Tech in the second game of a doubleheader, took a quick glance at the number 38, which signified the number of wins accumulated by WVU to that point.
“Right next to the 38, it doesn’t say anywhere how we won. It says we won,” Bassinger said. “It’s kind of like I could give up six line drives in a row, if they’re caught, they’re outs.”
Whether it was Bassinger’s intention to do so or not, the words stretched well beyond the obvious.
Any one person could take that 38 — now 39 following WVU’s 5-0 win against the Red Raiders on Sunday, at Kendrick Family Ballpark — and analyze it 100 different ways.
There’s the feel-good angle, in that this regular season will soon become unlike any other in school history.
With a win at Pitt on Tuesday, the Mountaineers would match the program record of 40 wins in a season … with six games remaining, then a Big 12 tournament and then a NCAA tournament.
It’s quite possible WVU could get to 50 wins before it’s all said and done, not to mention win an outright Big 12 title and then who knows after that.
In short, one way or another, this season will create history.
There’s also the overly worrisome angle, which is the one taken by those who bury themselves deep into the numbers provided by the RPI, strength of schedules and NCAA-tournament projections.
That is a journey that tells a slightly different story. WVU is just one of two schools ranked in the top 35 of the RPI with a strength of schedule ranked higher than 100th in the nation.
In terms of playing Quad 1 opponents, WVU has done it seven times to this point, anywhere between 11 and 18 fewer than the bulk of SEC schools.
And so those wins, especially the ones that didn’t come in convincing fashion, will get nit-picked and scrutinized.
For those who are quick to hop on board to conspiracy theories about the NCAA selection committees being against WVU athletics — including our state’s own Governor — you are now on deck.
Depending on how the Mountaineers play out the season, it’s quite possible that a team with 40-some wins and a Big 12 regular-season title, is not a regional host for the NCAA tournament.
Which brings us back to Bassinger’s words and what may be the beauty behind this WVU team and season.
They are neither caught up in the historical aspect of their journey they’ve created, nor do they lose sleep at night worrying about strength of schedules.
“There are obviously things we need to work on as a team, but baseball is already hard enough. You should never critique the wins,” Bassinger continued.
Never critique the wins. Never agonize too much on the defeats, even the ones against Marshall.
“We lose to Marshall and we lose the first game to Texas Tech, but going into that second game, nobody was thinking we had to win that game,” WVU second baseman Sam White said. “No one was panicking.”
It would have been easy to, without a doubt. Make no mistake, it’s not like this team is oblivious to the excitement they’ve created.
They are also very aware of what the RPI says and doesn’t say about the chances of WVU hosting a regional in 2025.
These players simply don’t fret about any of it, a true accomplishment on their part.
“If you keep looking ahead and keep worrying about the past, it’s going to eat you alive,” was how White explained it. “Just focus on that next game and control what you can control.”
