One Stat Shows Why WVU Winning the National Title Isn't Far-Fetched

The West Virginia Mountaineers baseball team is headed to the College World Series after dominating the Cal Poly Mustangs in the NCAA Morgantown Super Regional last weekend.

Head coach Steve Sabins is taking the Mountaineers baseball program to Omaha in just his second season as the program's head man. Now that the Mountaineers have punched their ticket to Omaha, the possibility of potentially bringing home a national championship gets more real with every win.

Out of all the teams left competing for a national championship, the Mountaineers do something better than all of them that could give them a real shot to win it all.

Out of the eight programs traveling to Omaha this week, the Mountaineers' pitching staff has the best earned run average. The staff was one of the biggest surprises this year, with three Division II transfers and a lefty coming off of Tommy John surgery headlining the group. They are a huge reason why the Mountaineers are headed to Omaha.

The 3.79 team ERA is good for the 7th-best mark in the nation and just edges out the North Carolina Tar Heels, who they could potentially meet in the national semifinals.

No. 7: West Virginia — 3.82
No. 8: North Carolina — 3.89
No. 14: Texas — 4.08
No. 20: Alabama — 4.21
No. 22: Ole Miss — 4.35
No. 56: Georgia — 4.87
No. 77: Oklahoma — 5.19
No. 118: Troy — 5.64

West Virginia University staring pithcer Cole Chansen | WVU Athletic

You can certainly attribute the low ERA to West Virginia having two of the best starting pitchers in all of college baseball. Chansen Cole pitched a seven-inning gem in game one of the Morgantown Super Regional on Friday, where he struck out 11 batters and surrendered only eight hits and two earned runs to a Cal Poly offense that came into Morgantown red hot.

The Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, Maxx Yehl, followed up Cole on Saturday, going five strong innings. The Mustangs had no answer for Yehl, who only gave up four hits and no earned runs during his outing. Yehl probably could have stayed in the game and dominated longer, if not for it already being out of reach.

Yehl ranks fifth nationally in ERA (2.10) and second among those in Omaha, trailing only Dylan Volantis of Texas.

It’s a great time to be a Mountaineer, wherever you may be

WVU baseball's run to Omaha is one of the most memorable Mountaineer sports moments in quite some time. This could be the best chance that WVU has had to bring home a national title in a major sport since the basketball team went to the Final Four in 2010. WVU currently boasts the fourth-best odds to win it all.

The team will begin its journey to capture the program's first National Championship on Friday as the Mountaineers will take on Troy in a best-of-three series. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

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