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MORGANTOWN -- You'd have thought the perfect scenario for Steve Sabins as he debuted as West Virginia's baseball coach would have been to not only sweep the opening series against Jacksonville but to do so in dominant style.
OK, it was sort of a sweep with an asterisk, as it was a scheduled four-game series with the Mountaineers winning the first three of them and the weatherman winning the fourth with the game postponed. But a sweep is a sweep.
This one, however, was a competitive sweep, and for the purposes of preparing for the season, Sabins was just fine with having won the first game 4-2 and the last 3-2 around a 10-3 victory in the second game, which was highlighted by a six-run outburst in the third inning.
The close games, Sabins believes, were far more important to his team than the blowout.
"It's almost the ideal scenario, right? Every game is so important, but unless you get into those tight games, you don't utilize your bench as much, you don't find who performs in those moments, which you have to do early," he said.
"We won one game by two runs, won another by one run. It doesn't matter how you slice it, one mental mistake, a few physical mistakes, or a lack of focus, and the Mountaineers could have been 1-2. That's how close baseball games work."
So, they were challenged. This newly constructed team had to make plays in tight situations, had to get key hits, had to run the bases without mistakes, had to catch and throw and mostly, had to pitch with the game on the line.
That's the lesson early season games are supposed to carry, but all too often early season games are blowouts one way or the other, often a Northern team coming out of the snow against a Southern team that is far advanced in its preparation.
"The fact that we were in those situations and executed at a high enough level to end up getting the win is kind of the ideal situation for the team because it's super obvious to the kids that it doesn't matter who you play, you can get beat unless you play good, clean baseball, have good starting pitching and are competitive out of the bullpen."
That all came into winning, just as they will have to when the games count that much more later in the spring when they are playing series after series against conference opponents. This year it's quite important that WVU be ready when they turn up the heat, as the conference has them playing traditional national power Oklahoma State on the road in the first Big 12 series.
The Cowboys are currently ranked No. 17 in the nation.
And then, after a pair of midweek games against James Madison, they face an equally strong Arizona team, ranked No. 20, for Sabins' first conference home series.
In those two series, they will have to be at their best, so Sabins was glad his team experienced close battles right out of the gate.
"In game one, that was probably our best game (of the Jacksonville series). We truly outperformed Jacksonville. We outhit them by 10 hits, had four or five stolen bases, had excellent starting pitching from Griffin Kim."
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound left-handed Notre Dame transfer from Quincy, Illinois, pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up one run and one hit while striking out five and walking three to earn the victory.
"We had zero errors and then, in the ninth inning, they had the tying run come to the plate. The message was that's how good you have to play to win a college baseball game at this level," Sabins said. "Those kinds of games allow for growth and allow some of the younger players to grow up fast.
"Some of them performed well, some performed average but not poor enough to cost us the game, so it's a lesson without costing the game."
Outfielder Skylar King had his midseason stroke right out of the gate as he collected six hits in 10 at-bats in the three games, including a triple and home run while driving in five runs and stealing a base.
Right up there with him was shortstop Brodie Kessler, who had five hits in nine at-bats with a double and RBI; infielder Amani Guzman, who went 3-for-7 with a double and RBI; and catcher Logan Sauve, who hit the first pitch he saw on the season for a single and finished the weekend with four hits in 11 tries, driving in four runs and scoring three.
On the mound, junior Gavin Van Kempen won the second game as he struck out six in his four innings of work while allowing one run, and reliever Reese Bassinger picked up two saves over the series, throwing 3 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball with four strikeouts.