Jun. 7—MORGANTOWN — What Steve Sabins and likely anyone associated or rooting for the WVU baseball program feared the most came to pass in the fifth inning Saturday, inside Alex Box Stadium.
It was a complete disaster. It took four WVU pitchers to get through the inning. Only one of the four actually registered an out.
A total of 14 pitches were needed for LSU to load the bases, 11 of them were called balls.
Five pitches later, Steven Milam had himself a grand slam and the overall sixth-seeded Tigers had themselves a 7-1 lead in what finished as a 16-9 victory in the first game of the super regionals.
By the time the inning came to a close, LSU (47-15) drew four walks, was hit by a pitch and added four hits in what must have felt like an hour spent on the diamond in nearly 100-degree heat for WVU players.
If the Mountaineers (44-15) were to have any shot at making this best-of-three super regional interesting, they had to avoid disaster, just had to.
They didn’t, and it is here we must ask the gut-wrenching question: Is this the ultimate destiny for WVU athletics ?
Not just for the baseball program, which is to be commended for so much recognition and positivity it’s brought to the school in recent years, but we’re talking the athletic program as a whole.
Now, we realize there is another game between these two same programs at 6 p.m. Sunday, and we’re not exactly counting this resilient bunch out, but, man, how many times do WVU fans have to relive this same story ?
It’s a story where every once in a while hope is not only created, but it festers itself into true belief.
Belief that this time will be different. This time the underdog school representing an underdog state will leap over the hurdle, smash down the door and show the stuffy elitists of the college sports world that West Virginia University athletics deserves some respect.
The school has been historically as close to that threshold as any university can possibly get without crossing over it.
The legendary Jerry West had the ball in his hands as the final seconds ticked off in the 1959 men’s hoops national championships.
You know what happened next.
Major Harris led an undefeated WVU football team to the 1989 national championship game against Notre Dame.
Harris got hurt on the third play of the game and you know what happened next.
Da’Sean Butler blew out his knee in the 2010 Final Four. Texas A &M hit a walk-off grand slam in 2019 to end the Mountaineers’ feel-great story of hosting a baseball regional for the first time in most of our lifetimes.
Just once, just going by simple mathematical odds alone, one of these damn moments in the national spotlight has to go WVU’s way, right ?
WVU fans, a true tip of the cap is thrown your way today, because your passion for the Mountaineers is unwavering no matter how many times you’ve been dragged to the edge of the cliff only to be shoved right off it.
We know you’ll be right back in front of those TV sets at 6 p.m. Sunday with the hope this series somehow gets stretched to a Game 3.
That isn’t out of the realm of possibility, either, because once you peel back the layers that came with the Tigers’ 16 runs, it was basically three swings, eight walks and five hit-by-pitches that did the Mountaineers in.
If the 12, 093 in attendance were being completely honest, LSU is not that much better of a baseball team than WVU.
And we say that knowing LSU spent six weeks as either the No. 1-or No. 2-ranked team in the country this season.
It’s just a matter of whether or not the Mountaineers can avoid disaster and make it a straight-up you-against-us type of game.
That would truly be a glorious notion, one that WVU fans have rarely experienced, because when the point comes for WVU teams needing to avoid disaster, unfortunately we also realize that’s when it strikes.