WVU baseball had an outstanding season until May. They went 4-8 in the month after starting the season 37-6. They also lost back-to-back Big 12 series for the first time all season to Kansas State and Kansas to end the season. Arizona gave them a tough loss in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament, beating the Mountaineers 12-1. It has been a tough stretch for WVU, and there are several reasons for the lack of production at the plate and on the mound. Read more: What went wrong for WVU baseball?
Pitching Woes
The pitching staff had an ERA under four for most of the season but fell apart down the stretch. They currently rank in the top 20 nationwide with an ERA of 4.28. A lot of this had to do with fatigue and injuries. Gavin Van Kempen suffered a shoulder injury against Texas Tech on May 3 in the second game of the doubleheader. He started and pitched two innings in that game before being removed. He returned on May 16 against Kansas but only faced three batters and recorded one out. Van Kempen did not pitch again in the regular season or conference tournament. He was sixth on the roster with 39.2 innings pitched. He was one of six pitchers in the rotation with more than 30 innings pitched, which was part of the problem.
READ: Violet Hewett Earns Second Straight All-Big 12 First Team Honors
Head coach Steve Sabins found a pitching rotation and did not move away from it. Six pitchers combined for 329.2 innings pitched out of 490 for the Mountaineers this season. That is roughly 80% of the innings pitched by just six players. Fatigue had to be an issue for the pitching staff in the latter part of the season. Another overlooked factor is the amount of travel the Mountaineers have compared to other teams. Most of the teams in the Big 12 are located west of the Mississippi River, which means the Mountaineers had to travel a lot for road series. They had an exceptional record on the road (23-5), but it had to take a toll on the roster, especially the pitchers who threw a large amount of innings.
Offensive Struggles
The offense also struggled down the stretch, and it showed. They averaged about 8.5 runs per game in the first 43 games of the season. WVU only scored 5.25 runs per game in May, a drastic dip in production. It made it difficult for the pitching staff due to the lack of run support. They were not shut out all season until the final series of the regular season against Kansas. The Jayhawks blanked them twice in that series, which encapsulated the offensive woes for WVU.
Senior Kyle West was one of the few players consistently hitting the ball for the Mountaineers. He currently has an 11-game hitting streak after the Big 12 tournament. He led the team with a 1.128 OPS. Jace Rinehart was second with a .969 OPS. He has failed to record a hit in the last five games after starting hot to begin May. Sam White and Logan Sauve were third and fourth on the team with an OPS of .932 and .874, respectively. White went 16 for 44 (.363 average) in May, which was on par with his season batting average of .353. Sauve went 10 for 49 (.204) in May, well below his season batting average of .285. They lacked consistent production from their best hitters and put a lot of stress on their pitching staff by not giving them run support.
The Bigger Picture
The momentum they had for most of the season seems to have evaporated in the last month. The pitching staff struggled mightily, and the offense did not provide timely hitting to put up runs. Fatigue almost certainly played a large role, while the amount of travel probably caught up with the team. Sabins could have given more reps to the rest of the roster during the regular season, especially when they were blowing teams out of the water. Those reps would have been crucial to the postseason success of the team.
Sabins’ stubbornness to move away from his pitching staff and not allow some younger players opportunities likely hurt this team in the long run. You could see that in the regular season finale with Kansas. Jack Kartsonas allowed one run in seven innings against the Jayhawks, but WVU lost 7-0. Cole Fehrman only faced one batter and hit him to start the eighth inning. He was immediately pulled in favor of Carson Estridge. Fehrman only pitched 5.2 innings this season and was given a very short leash. Estridge threw 47 innings this season and was allowed to face 12 batters despite allowing six hits in a one-run game upon taking the mound. He gave up five earned runs, and Fehrman was accountable for the batter hit by a pitch who scored with Estridge in the game.
WVU had runners in scoring position in the eighth and ninth innings, but it did not matter because they were down at least four runs in both situations. A one-run game turned into a blowout and WVU lost all their momentum after a great outing from Kartsonas. Sabins is a first-year head coach, so he should improve in upcoming seasons, but he must be willing to admit his mistakes and modify his strategy.
They now turn their attention to the NCAA Regionals, which begin on May 30. They will learn who and where they will play on Monday during the selection show. WVU must put the bad stretch behind them and rest up before regionals.
