Steve Sabins Explains What Went Wrong in WVU’s Big 12 Title Game Loss

If you weren't able to watch the game and you checked the score this morning, you would probably assume West Virginia got its tail kicked from start to finish in the Big 12 title game against Kansas. Actually, for the first six innings, it was one heck of a game, and one WVU had plenty of chances to grab the momentum and put the Jayhawks in a position where they were the ones playing from behind.

Despite the disappointing finish, WVU head coach Steve Sabins is proud of his group for what they were able to do this weekend, effectively putting themselves in a position to host. Here is everything Sabins had to say following last night's loss.

Reaction to the loss

“(Ian) Korn had an incredible outing after some relief work in the first game of the tournament. To be able to bounce back and give what he gave to the team in a really tight ballgame was incredible. We had a lot of offensive opportunities. The left on base number has to be really high for the Mountaineers. We had a ton of opportunities to crack that thing open and take a lead and weren’t able to do it. The kids gave us everything they had. We hadn’t had a ton of luck the last few years at Globe Life (Stadium), so to come out here and clip off a couple wins is great for our program, and I think secured a hosting spot for us if I had to guess.”

The chaos of rundowns with bases loaded

“It’s more on the player. So, like pretty shallow fly ball, it’s really a good idea to try to break from third base to draw a throw. Once he throws the ball, you can read it, and if it were to hit off the catcher or to airmail the catcher or go to the backstop, you could potentially score there. Sean may have been a little too aggressive down the line. (Matthew) Graveline was at second base and really was trucking to third base. So appropriate baserunning there would be try to draw the throw, see that it’s on line, shut it down, the man on second needs to go back to second base. But in that emergency situation, we practiced that. It’s essentially make sure that there’s two baserunners on the base secured and the trail guy to go back to the base. It ended up working out in our favor, but not a designed offensive play. More of we’re in a bad spot, how do we get out of it? We did, which was really fortunate.”

Struggles with runners in scoring position

“There’s a lot of factors. You can only control what you can control. We just don’t talk about it, some of those uncontrollable things. You want to see guys be aggressive. You want to see them challenge the fences on every swing. Sometimes in those situations, really tight ballgame, men in scoring position, less than two (outs) you can try to feel for the ball or the pitch. You can try so hard to get one run in instead of taking balanced, aggressive swings and hitting doubles and homers. Sometimes you play a 9 p.m. game on the West Coast with a three-hour time difference, and you’re across the country, emotional win against Arizona State in game two. You stay up until 3 a.m. and your body clock wakes you up at six, and you’re running on fumes and three hours of sleep. Sometimes your legs aren’t under you too. I can’t tell you exactly why, but it’s probably a mixture of those things.”

Priority for the week leading up to the regional

“We need to take some time to rest and recover, but probably the priority is getting back from a time zone perspective and not letting guys sleep all day or stay up until 4 a.m., and probably having structure when it comes to eating meals at the right time and being at the field. That needs to start happening tomorrow morning. Get some guys that haven’t thrown some sim games or some bullpens, but a lot of these guys were worked pretty hard, so probably rest and recovery is a priority.”

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