Steve Sabins press conference summary: post Kentucky
West Virginia head coach Steve Sabins addressed the media following the 11-9 comeback win against Kentucky in the Morgantown Regional and WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
–Special game one of the best games he’s been part of. The character of the kids and their resiliency was on display in this epic game. The fans and the atmosphere was as good as anything he’s ever seen in college baseball. Seeing fans sing Country Roads was epic. It was on of the funnest games he’s ever been a part of. You had a whole bunch of people playing for each other and something bigger than themselves.
–Ben McDougal has been injured but as slowly been building up his work load. He could have been a medical redshirt, but said he wanted to do this. He said he wanted to go and help the team during the year and the stars aligned even when he knew there might not have been a lot of opportunities in his last year.
–Sabins said you have to make sure the kids don’t think they’ve won the Super Bowl. You have to put it in their hands because they’ve earned the right to win, lose, or draw. They know what they’re playing for and they know they set out to win a regional. Reinforcing they are capable of doing something special. Matthew Graveline was here at 9 a.m. and caught 18 innings of emotional baseball. The physical part is real and mentally just trying to unplug and go to sleep. A really long day and some are running on little sleep. He doesn’t think they will have any trouble getting going. The first inning will be a big one and they need to stabilize that early.
–In the moments of high stress, high anxiety things are clearer for him so he could appreciate the game. He could see the fans and he had never seen that type of atmosphere in college baseball. The game and the fans that is super special because it was built and the kids built that with how they performed and past performance and track record. For him it was looking at what was built at West Virginia and it was magical.
–Sabins said you just want what’s best for McDougal. You have that conversation and the only thing he couldn’t promise him is innings because those are earned. He didn’t want if this game never rolled around he might have ended up with five innings and his career being over so that’s the risk. Having that honest conversation and he basically assessed the risk and said let’s do it.
–Sabins said with the chance to host a Super Regional with a win he joked that like they need more motivation for tomorrow. They just want to keep playing together.
–David Hagen wasn’t helped in the first inning with two errors but he gave it everything he had. Josh Surigao they went to because of the lineup. Carson Estridge was the next guy and they’v seen him be good. They were keeping McDougal on the back end because if everything went their way he could throw five or six innings. He threw more than he had all season and he’s really glad he finished the game.
–Sabins said he has never really seen anything like that. The goal was to get to Monday because anything can happen and they’ll see what happens there.
–The pitching has been incredible, the staff does such a great job. From all areas of the program. At the end of the day when there’s 5,000 people chanting and screaming and you’re holding the ball and on the mound it’s who can use that energy in your favor. You just hope it can translate to success.
–Sabins said it’s the buy in you’re really proud of because when you talk to guys and have belief which he does and for them to have the same belief is good. In those moments it feels like you’re in that bunker in those moments competing with each other. He’s just proud of those kids and how they approach each day.
–Sabins said against Kentucky it’s just good players, great programs and teams that have made huge strides in the last ten years and working really hard to be on the national stage. People that are really pushing in those programs to be elite and want to win and have done a good job.
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