MORGANTOWN — It would have been an added bonus if No. 17 WVU could walk into Kendrick Family Ballpark today with a Big 12 championship already secured.
It was never an expectation for Steve Sabins.
“In all honesty, if someone wanted to go into the final week of the regular season and take a vacation, you’re in the wrong sport,” the WVU head baseball coach said. “It never happens like that. It probably shouldn’t happen like that.”
The Mountaineers (40-10, 19-6 Big 12) open a three-game series against Kansas at 6:30 p.m. today to close out the regular season.
At stake is the opportunity for the Mountaineers to capture the program’s second Big 12 title.
WVU needs one victory in the three games or one loss by Arizona State — the Sun Devils travel to Oklahoma State for a three-game series at 7 p.m. today — to secure the championship and the No. 1 seed in next week’s conference tournament.
“I think it could be a pretty special weekend,” Sabins said. “You’ve got so much on the line. It’s the final series of the season. We’re at home. It doesn’t get much better than that. Hopefully we can make it a historic weekend.”
With a 14-9 loss last Sunday against Kansas State, WVU missed on the chance to win the title early.
Instead they now face an ever-improving Kansas, which has its own motivation heading into the series.
The Jayhawks (39-14, 17-10) can still earn the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 tournament, as well as strengthen their resumé for the NCAA tournament.
It was just a few years ago when Kansas baseball was the bottom-dweller of the Big 12, but that’s changed since Dan Fitzgerald was hired in 2022.
The former Dallas Baptist and LSU assistant coach now has the Jayhawks in line to appear in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014.
The last two Big 12 Freshman of the Year were Jayhawks: Dominic Voegele is now a sophomore who is expected to start today on the mound opposite WVU lefty Griffin Kirn, while Kodey Shojinaga was a sixth-round pick by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2024.
“What Dan has done with that program is amazing,” Sabins said. “He’s recruited well. He’s hit the portal hard. His team is old and experienced. He’s turned that program completely around.”
Kansas enters the series as the Big 12 team leader in home runs, while outfielder Jackson Hauge is tied for the conference lead with 18 home runs.
Brady Ballinger (14 home runs) bats right before him, forming a one-two offensive punch that can’t be matched in the Big 12.
Which brings Sabins to what may be his biggest concern for the weekend: WVU’s pitching.
More specifically, the Mountaineers’ bullpen is in the spotlight heading into the finale.
Reese Bassinger and Carson Estridge have been anchors throughout the season, but as WVU has lost five of its last eight games, the pitching duo have struggled, too.
Bassinger has allowed 10 runs over his last five appearances, while Estridge has given up nine over his last three games.
Both pitchers played a role in consecutive walk-off losses against Pitt and Kansas State last week.
“You want to believe in the guys who got you here,” Sabins said. “Carson and Reese have been rocks for us all year. They’ve played major roles in getting us to the position we’re in right now.
“They have earned the right to win or lose in the moment.”
Sabins said there won’t be any major changes in WVU’s starting lineup heading into the Kansas series.
“We’ve been struggling, so you don’t want to bury your head in the sand and act like everything is OK,” he said. “You also don’t want to go into the final series of the season and completely change everything up and take guys out of their normal routines. That’s not going to fix things, either.
“What I expect is for our guys to go out there and play hard and we’ll see if they can match the moment in front of them. Just play good baseball and we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”
