MORGANTOWN — Peaks and valleys, yeah, Steve Sabins knows a bit about both.
Three games shy of wrapping up just his second regular season as West Virginia’s head baseball coach, it’s likely Sabins has already either been fired on social media or hailed as a conquering hero dozens of times.
“I’m really excited that people care enough to be passionate enough about what we’re doing and be in the moment and live with the struggles and live with the failures,” Sabins said Monday, just hours after the Mountaineers (35-12, 19-8 Big 12) had risen to No. 9 in the national rankings. “Our job is to not to get too emotionally tied to those things.”
Sabins refers to the highs and lows as “the swings,” and he’s not referring to the ones taken by star Gavin Kelly, who has six home runs over his last six games heading into the final series against TCU that begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday inside Kendrick Family Ballpark.
The swings this year have been mighty. Star pitcher Chase Meyer was removed from the roster in early March. There was a series loss against UCF, a devastating 23-1 defeat at the hands of rival Pitt, and another series loss on the road against Cincinnati.
“We try to avoid all of that stuff, because the swings are so great if you get tied up in that kind of stuff,” Sabins said. “Three weeks ago, we could have not been able to make a regional or we could have been hosting. Then you go from a national seed and we get spanked and you suck. The swings are just too great to try and capture what you’re playing for.”
Yet Sabins doesn’t hide from the swings, either. In fact, before this season even began, the WVU team was brought together and shown its journey through those peaks and valleys and how it survived the low points and thrived coming out of them.
“We pulled up tons of social media accounts from the end of our season last year and into the regional,” Sabins described the moment. “Last year, we scuffled down the stretch and there were a lot of doubters. Stuff like the season is over and we choked it off and we did this and did that. Every game in the regional that we were trailing, a player screwed up or a coaching decision was terrible.
“Then you get back into the game and those were the greatest coaching decisions. When you’re trailing, you screwed up. When we won the regional, everyone should get (contract) extensions and it’s the greatest team in program history.”
A year later, that 22-run loss against the Panthers could have been a signal for destruction. Losing two out of three games against Cincinnati only put a further wedge in the gap between the Mountaineers and Big 12 leader Kansas.
Panic was knocking at the door. Frustration could have set in, yet that’s not Sabins’ coaching style. Never let them see you sweat and don’t get emotionally tied to those damn swings. That was the reason for that meeting in the fall and it carried over into the season.
“When you play this many games and you’re with a group of people who are human, there’s just ups and downs,” Sabins said. “I think talking about it and having these young guys understand that they’re going to get kicked in whatever they do off the baseball field in life. Whether that’s sick parents or kids or issues. You can either get totally fixated on some of the failure or adversity or keep moving forward. I think that’s always our message.”
The swings turned into sweeps, first Kansas State and then Kansas last weekend. That gap is now a one-game crack between the Mountaineers and the 14th-ranked Jayhawks. Heading into the final week, Kansas has the lead in the standings, but WVU owns the tiebreaker between the two schools.
Anything can happen, that’s likely Sabins’ own expectations down the stretch. Why? Because over the last few years, he’s already experienced it.
He knows there are more swings just waiting out there on the horizon. Some will be good, others maybe not as much. His hope is that he’s prepared his team to take them all head on.
“Not to go into coach talk, it’s just every week there’s something you’re playing for. Whether that’s a top 25 ranking or seeded in this or seeded in that,” Sabins said. “We don’t get caught up in it. We’ve been through it a lot in the last decade and we’ve got to see the swings and the emotions. We’ve led the Big 12 and not played well down the stretch. We’ve been the other guy chasing the team in front and everything in between. I think for us, it’s just about showing up and playing really good baseball and trying to execute.”
