MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – So, how good is this West Virginia University baseball team, which improved to 18-1 with last night's 3-1 victory over James Madison?

Coach Steve Sabins' Mountaineers are off to the school's best start since 1964 when West Virginia won its first 18 games before dropping the second game of a double header against Furman at old Hawley Field, located where the WVU Coliseum sits today.

West Virginia has now cracked every Top 25 poll, most recently getting into Baseball America's rankings this week at No. 25.

The Mountaineers have remained parked at No. 24 in the USA Today coaches' poll for the last three weeks. That's after finishing last year No. 17 in the final coaches' poll.

The website WarrenNolan.com has West Virginia ranked No. 29 in its latest RPI rankings, which is five spots lower than rival Pitt at 13-7. The only other Big 12 team in the top 35 right now is No. 32 Arizona, in town this weekend for a three-game conference series at Kendrick Family Ballpark.

WVU's strength of schedule currently is 205, and its best wins are on the road at 11-9 Jacksonville (three) and 10-8 Oklahoma State. Jacksonville's RPI sits at 80, while Oklahoma State's is 69. The schedule strength is going to improve as West Virginia gets deeper into its season.

The team's impressive 12-0 record in road games is certainly playing well so far.

In terms of historical Mountaineer seasons, there are several squads this team is chasing.

Coach Randy Mazey's 2024 team won two of three at 20^th-ranked Oklahoma, swept a three-game home series against 19^th-ranked UCF, knocked off 22^nd-ranked Dallas Baptist in its opening game of the NCAA Tournament and won its first-ever regional at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, Arizona.

The Mountaineers finished the year ranked 17^th in the USA Today coaches' poll.

Mazey's 2023 team had winning streaks of nine and 10 games during the regular season, had an early season win over 14^th-ranked Maryland, took two of three against 16^th-ranked Oklahoma State and 25^th-ranked Texas Tech, qualified for NCAA regionals and finished the season tying a school record with 40 wins.

In 2019, Mazey's Mountaineers won a game at fifth-ranked Oregon State, had series wins over 19^th-ranked Oklahoma and 13^th-ranked Texas Tech, knocked the 10^th-ranked Red Raiders out of the Big 12 Tournament and earned a bid to host an NCAA Regional in Morgantown for the first time since 1955.

WVU ended the year ranked 20^th in the USA Today rankings.

Mazey also had an exceptional nine in 2017 that snapped the program's 21-year NCAA Tournament drought with a 36-26 record that included a pair of wins at ninth-ranked Coastal Carolina, a series win at 14^th-ranked Baylor, an historic home series triumph against third-ranked TCU and an impressive victory over third-ranked Texas Tech in the Big 12 Tournament.

The Mountaineers briefly entered the USA Today Poll that season for the first time in school history at No. 25.

In 1996, Greg Van Zant's club won the Big East regular season title on the final conference game of the regular season and then used future first-round draft pick Chris Enochs in relief in the Big East Tournament championship game to upset Notre Dame.

WVU was basically a .500 team until getting hot late in the year by winning 11 of 12 and using that momentum to bag wins against 16^th-ranked Tennessee and 14^th-ranked Georgia Southern in the NCAA Regionals in Clemson, South Carolina. Eventually, WVU ran out of gas and dropped games to ninth-ranked Clemson and the Volunteers to exit the tournament.

The Mountaineers won a school-record 40 games in 1994, but needed to win a play-in series against St. Peters to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, which they did. 

Another .500 campaign appeared to be in the books for WVU in 1982. However, coach Dale Ramsburg's squad split a doubleheader with 12^th-ranked Virginia Tech at Bowen Field in Bluefield, Virginia, and then rode the arms of John Holshey and Mike Scarcella to win the Eastern 8 championship at Rutgers.

Scarcella and Tony Rugghia came up with victories to advance West Virginia to the South Carolina regional finals where the 20^th-ranked Gamecocks eliminated the Mountaineers 2-1.

WVU's tournament victories over Old Dominion and East Carolina helped it get into Collegiate Baseball's final rankings at No. 16 despite its 24-23 overall record.

Ramsburg had another outstanding squad in 1971 that was 21-6 and briefly cracked the rankings, but it was snubbed by the NCAA Tournament District 2 Selection Committee when it opted to pick Penn State, whose coach, Chuck Medlar, was its chair. WVU was so confident of a bid that it printed an NCAA Tournament guide. 

Sound familiar?

Hall of Fame coach Steve Harrick's final Mountaineer team in 1967 won nine of its last 10 games, including an error-filled 10-6 victory over 20^th-ranked East Carolina in a one-game playoff in Fort Eustis, Virginia, to determine the Southern Conference regular season title and its automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

WVU forced the playoff game when it swept a doubleheader from Richmond to end the regular season tied with the Pirates.

West Virginia's season ended with defeats to fifth-ranked Auburn and third-ranked Clemson in the District 3 Playoffs at Sims Legion Park in Gastonia, North Carolina.

Collegiate Baseball tabbed the Mountaineers No. 20 in their final rankings.

Harrick's '64 squad was 18-0 before dropping the second game of a home doubleheader to Furman on May 2. Its only other regular season losses were to Penn State and Virginia Tech, before defeats to third-ranked Ole Miss and East Carolina in the District 3 Tournament concluded WVU's season.

The Mountaineers that year reached No. 8 and spent the entire season in the polls.

Richmond ended West Virginia's 14-game winning streak to begin 1963, but the Mountaineers rallied to win its final 15 games to finish the year 29-1 and ranked third in the country.

West Virginia came out on the short end of a 5-3 decision to fourth-ranked Wake Forest in the opening game of the District 3 playoffs, recovered to eliminate 18^th-ranked Auburn behind the fabulous pitching of Joe Jeran and sophomore fireballer John Radosevich, but was bumped from the tournament by the Demon Deacons.

WVU's 30-3 overall record and No. 11 ranking in the final Collegiate Baseball poll remains the school standard.

Harrick had two other fine teams in the decade. His 1961 squad edged Richmond and Furman by one game to win the Southern Conference and eliminated fifth-ranked Florida State in the District 3 playoffs. A 7-3 loss to 17^th-ranked Duke the following day ended the Mountaineers' year, its first-ever spent in the rankings at No. 24.

In 1962, West Virginia cracked the top 20 late in the season and nipped the Spiders by a game to win the Southern Conference and earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Losses to 21^st-ranked Wake Forest and 24^th-ranked Florida State in Gastonia, North Carolina concluded the Mountaineers' year with a 19-8 overall record and No. 20 rating in the final polls.

There were no national rankings in 1955, but West Virginia would have been ranked among the top teams in the country that season after edging George Washington for the Southern Conference regular season championship and earning a bid to host the winner of Wake Forest-Rollins in the NCAA Tournament District 3 playoffs in Morgantown.

Wake advanced and WVU staved off elimination by rallying to beat the Demon Deacons 9-7 in the second game before losing a 6-5 heartbreaker the following day for the right to advance to the College World Series.

In Omaha, Nebraska, Wake Forest got past Colgate, Colorado State, Western Michigan and Oklahoma State to win the national championship, the last ACC team to do so until Virginia did it in 2015.

As a side note, WVU was awarded an NCAA Tournament bid by the Southern Conference in 1956 when regular season champion George Washington had too many four-year players barred from competing in the tournament, but the Mountaineers also declined because it had seven players, including ace pitchers Jim Heise and Carl Norman, who also fell under the four-year category.

These are some of the teams to keep an eye on as West Virginia ventures deeper into its 2025 season.