Another Strong Week Has WVU Climbing National Polls
May 08, 2023 04:00 PM | Baseball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A 3-1 record last week for the West Virginia University baseball team, including a series win over last year's College World Series runner-up Oklahoma, has the Mountaineers climbing the national polls once again this week.
WVU, now 36-12, 13-5, advanced five spots from No. 17 to No. 12 in this week's Collegiate Baseball poll, released earlier today. The Mountaineers moved up from No. 14 to No. 11 in the USA Today coaches' poll, from No. 15 to No. 13 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll, and from No. 15 to No. 14 in the Perfect Game poll.
West Virginia remained No. 11 in this week's Baseball America poll, and No. 12 in the D1baseball.com poll, which is officially recognized by the NCAA.
The No. 11 ranking in the Baseball America and USA Today is the highest-ever in those two polls for West Virginia, which saw its 10-game winning streak snapped on Saturday by the Sooners.
WVU has never been ranked in the top 10 in any of these polls during the modern era of Mountaineer baseball.
In the 1960s, when Steve Harrick coached the team, West Virginia finished ranked 11th in the final Collegiate Baseball Poll in 1963 and had a run of four straight years from 1961 to 1964 when it was nationally ranked by that publication.
The other years Collegiate Baseball ranked West Virginia were in 1967, 1982 and 2019.
West Virginia began the week by gaining a run-rule decision over Pitt on Wednesday night and then added its fourth straight Big 12 series win by topping the Sooners by scores of 9-3 on Friday and Sunday.
JJ Wetherholt, Ellis Garcia and Grant Hussey had multi-hit performances in two of the three games against Oklahoma, while freshman Logan Sauve went 2 for 4 with a home run and 4 RBI in the Sunday triumph, which lasted more than six hours because of a 3½-hour rain delay during the third inning.
Coach Randy Mazey labeled Sunday's win an important one for his team.
"When a hitter has a hitting streak broken a lot times the next day, they don't get a hit because they relax when it's over and don't focus as much. A lot of times when a football team is 7-0 and loses a game and go 7-1, they lose the next game; that's really easy to do," Mazey explained. "We focused on that not happening after we lost the 10-game winning streak. It's time to start a new one and don't get caught up in, 'Hey, this will be easy to do again.' That's a real trap after you lose following a streak like that."
D1baseball.com's updated RPI report released this morning has West Virginia No. 17. Sixteen teams are selected to host NCAA Tournament regional games during the opening week of the NCAA Tournament coming up in early June and the Mountaineers are among the teams under consideration.
In the meantime, West Virginia completes its three-game, interrupted mid-week series against Pitt with a trip back to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and then wraps up the home portion of Big 12 regular season play at Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark against Texas Tech this weekend.
A three-game series at Texas on May 18-20 will conclude the regular season for the Mountaineers. WVU is now four wins shy of the school record of 40 victories established during the 1994 season, the late Dale Ramsburg's last leading the program.
Tickets for the Texas Tech series remain on sale and can be purchased through WVUGAME.com.
WVU, now 36-12, 13-5, advanced five spots from No. 17 to No. 12 in this week's Collegiate Baseball poll, released earlier today. The Mountaineers moved up from No. 14 to No. 11 in the USA Today coaches' poll, from No. 15 to No. 13 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll, and from No. 15 to No. 14 in the Perfect Game poll.
West Virginia remained No. 11 in this week's Baseball America poll, and No. 12 in the D1baseball.com poll, which is officially recognized by the NCAA.
The No. 11 ranking in the Baseball America and USA Today is the highest-ever in those two polls for West Virginia, which saw its 10-game winning streak snapped on Saturday by the Sooners.
WVU has never been ranked in the top 10 in any of these polls during the modern era of Mountaineer baseball.
In the 1960s, when Steve Harrick coached the team, West Virginia finished ranked 11th in the final Collegiate Baseball Poll in 1963 and had a run of four straight years from 1961 to 1964 when it was nationally ranked by that publication.
The other years Collegiate Baseball ranked West Virginia were in 1967, 1982 and 2019.
West Virginia began the week by gaining a run-rule decision over Pitt on Wednesday night and then added its fourth straight Big 12 series win by topping the Sooners by scores of 9-3 on Friday and Sunday.
JJ Wetherholt, Ellis Garcia and Grant Hussey had multi-hit performances in two of the three games against Oklahoma, while freshman Logan Sauve went 2 for 4 with a home run and 4 RBI in the Sunday triumph, which lasted more than six hours because of a 3½-hour rain delay during the third inning.
Coach Randy Mazey labeled Sunday's win an important one for his team.
"When a hitter has a hitting streak broken a lot times the next day, they don't get a hit because they relax when it's over and don't focus as much. A lot of times when a football team is 7-0 and loses a game and go 7-1, they lose the next game; that's really easy to do," Mazey explained. "We focused on that not happening after we lost the 10-game winning streak. It's time to start a new one and don't get caught up in, 'Hey, this will be easy to do again.' That's a real trap after you lose following a streak like that."
D1baseball.com's updated RPI report released this morning has West Virginia No. 17. Sixteen teams are selected to host NCAA Tournament regional games during the opening week of the NCAA Tournament coming up in early June and the Mountaineers are among the teams under consideration.
In the meantime, West Virginia completes its three-game, interrupted mid-week series against Pitt with a trip back to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and then wraps up the home portion of Big 12 regular season play at Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark against Texas Tech this weekend.
A three-game series at Texas on May 18-20 will conclude the regular season for the Mountaineers. WVU is now four wins shy of the school record of 40 victories established during the 1994 season, the late Dale Ramsburg's last leading the program.
Tickets for the Texas Tech series remain on sale and can be purchased through WVUGAME.com.
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