MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Dominant pitching and consistent quality at bats that have helped create an increase in power have helped West Virginia rise to a No. 9 ranking on the strength of a seven-game win streak.
Strong play down the stretch leaves the Mountaineers (35-12, 19-8) in position to compete for a Big 12 Conference Championship over its final series starting Thursday against TCU (32-18, 16-11) at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
But as WVU rolled to a sweep at nationally-ranked Kansas last weekend to move to within one game of the Jayhawks for the top spot in the Big 12, it was more than the aforementioned traits that continued to play a key part in the team’s success.
“It’s the best defense that I’ve coached here in 11 seasons,” says Steve Sabins, a second-year head coach with a decade-plus on the staff.
That’s evidenced in the team’s .981 fielding percentage, which leads the Big 12 by a fairly wide margin. The .05 percentage difference between WVU and Arizona State, BYU and Oklahoma State is the same as the separation between the aforementioned trio and Utah, which is second-to-last in the league at .971.
While the Mountaineers’ 47 games are the second-fewest to Utah’s 46 among league teams, their 33 errors are nine fewer than the next closest team.
“You have the fastest player in the country playing first base [Armani Guzman], so there are ground balls hit in the four-hole taken away every time,” Sabins quipped. “There are diving plays in centerfield. You have a catcher playing left [Matthew Graveline] that throws 100 miles an hour. Gavin Kelly is throwing out an ungodly amount of runners, and at one point was like a 60 percent throwing out runners and that’s not sustainable most likely. [Brodie] Kresser is playing out of his mind. Matt Ineich has been a rock. Tyrus Hall is the best third baseman I’ve ever coached bar none, and then you have speed in the outfield and plus defense with [Brock] Wills, [Ben] Lumsden or [Maxwell] Molessa. Some guys on the bench that aren’t playing are really good defenders. Weston Mazey and Colton Sims are plus defenders. It’s been fun.”
How it came about is rather unique.
Guzman had never played first base before this season. He had primarily been a centerfielder and made the transition to third base late in 2025. Sabins and his staff are comfortable enough — and for good reason — with both Kelly and Graveline at catcher, and when not behind the dish the former is generally at second and the latter in left field.
Kresser handles second when Kelly catches, while Ineich and Hall have been steady if not sensational at shortstop and third, respectively.
“You don’t always know what you’re going to get in recruiting when it comes to defense,” Sabins said. “You have an idea, but evaluating defense is so much more difficult, because if you go to a game, you might see a second baseman make three plays. You can’t sit there for 50 games and watch the defense of a player unfold, and high school kids aren’t exactly recording their defense all the time. It’s not hitting, pitching, velocity and those kinds of things. You think you pair athleticism, but a ton of credit to our position coaches. They’ve done an incredible job prioritizing defense and that’s been a separator for us.”
During the ongoing seven-game win streak, WVU has one error — that coming on Graveline’s throw in the ninth inning of a 13-6 victory against Kansas State that marked the third straight triumph.
The Mountaineers have gone without an error in 21 of 35 victories this season, while totaling 18 errors across their wins.
“I had an idea with the athleticism,” Sabins said. “The biggest one I didn’t know was Tyrus Hall would do what he’s done. I was confident in what Kresser has done, but Armani didn’t play first base until the spring, so I had no idea there. He was in centerfield to start, then we have an outfielder who’s primarily a gold glove first baseman. It’s incredible what he’s doing.
“But Tyrus Hall is the biggest x-factor, because I haven’t seen a college third baseman play like he’s played. We take for granted high choppers, throws on the run, diving double play balls, backhands across the diamond. If you watch a game, you get to see a Tyrus Hall highlight film. That’s probably the piece I didn’t expect as much that has really helped us.”