Steve Sabins press conference summary Morgantown Super Regional: 6-4
West Virginia head coach Steve Sabins addressed the media ahead of the Friday matchup in the Morgantown Super Regional against Cal Poly and here is a summary of what was said.
–Had a couple good days of practice and turning the page on last weekend. Guys are in a good position they got some rest and recovery they will check into a hotel to prioritize rest and sleep. It was just trying to be really good with the process this week to be prepared for tomorrow.
–Sabins said you put thought in the pitching decisions. He wanted to get a pulse on the players and where they’re at and use his eyes. Chansen Cole will start game one and after that it will be to be determined Depending on what happens. When you have a series to win you can manage it a will bit differently. They are considering all angles but Cole will start.
–Haven’t put a lot of thought in the lineup but he expects it will be similar to what unfolded in the regional. The biggest decisions with the lineup are who’s catching and some things like that.
–There’s lots of changes that have happened over the past few weeks so being at home allowed them to not skip a beat. It’s nice to be at home and play a three game set, and this is what this team was built to do. They are most comfortable there because they do it the most so back to baseball as you know it.
–Once you’re done with the scouting report and you’re watching the game you make some minor changes. In the regional you had to prepare for three teams with a lot of pitchers. You can get fairly strung out on the scouting report side in the Regional but in the Super Regional there’s likely six arms that can get in the game if you’re trying to win game one. Cal Poly is well coached, they throw strikes, they executed on offense and bunt more aggressively than teams in the Big 12. They really think through the game and try to eliminate runs.
–Cal Poly is more of a different animal than what they’ve seen style wise. Cincinnati bunts and is aggressive but they have 130 stolen bases, they aren’t like anybody they’ve played. Really good arms. Great place to live, good place to recruit to.
–Sabins said win the first pitch, win the first inning and it can turn into a pretty quick boxing match. They put themselves in some holes in that Regional pitching wise and on defense so the goal is to play clean baseball.
–There’s so many decisions that are made in a game and Sabins makes a lot of them but the players make some of them, too. There’s a million decisions in the game and it’s hard to pinpoint the turning point in the game. There’s just too many decisions to really know which ones are the difference.
–Sabins said you usually think about imperfections after a loss than wins. He knew they had a really competitive team. It all depends on who you play and what moments and how do you perform on the big stage. That’s what team and culture is all about. Having the most talent on a team does not guarantee you anything so it’s about trying to find a winning formula and you want to keep it rolling. You work with what you got while taking notes that maybe you need to get a little more athletic here, or faster here or maybe more left-handed pitching. But you get what you can get with recruiting with the resources you have.
–Sabins has always been willing to take those risks because he doesn’t wasn’t to play for second place.
–Fun being at home. He has breakfast with his kids in the morning and get to go home and see his wife. It’s nice and it’s probably more healthy he would sign up for hosting every year if he could.
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