MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Frequent reminders of winter have made their way through West Virginia in recent weeks. However, the season opener for the WVU baseball team is 30 days away when the Mountaineers visit Jacksonville for a four-game series.

First-year head coach Steve Sabins is doing his best to take advantage of any slight breaks in winter weather with small group drills outside on the turf at Wagener Field at Kendrick Family Ballpark.

“This is the first year we’ve got a tractor, which is incredible. So the snow is piled up in huge banks on the sides of our field. We practiced [Monday] outside and then we got ground balls and fly balls [Tuesday] for about 20 minutes. I think it was 24 degrees but it felt like 12. You’ve got to get out there when you can to get ready,” Sabins said on Tuesday’s edition of the Citynet Statewide Sportsline .

“Every time you get a chance to see a live ball off a bat with a backdrop, for a pitcher to face a live hitter, it is just different on the field rather than indoors.”

The Mountaineers will be counting on a number of new pitchers to log innings after their top three leaders in starts [Derek Clark, Tyler Switalski and Aidan Major] were selected in the 2024 MLB Draft. Sabins says the preseason ramp up is important for all players, but it is critical for pitchers to follow a plan to be ready for the mid-February opener.

“Over the course of Christmas break, the most important thing is that pitchers are throwing on a regular basis. They have progressions to build up. The majority of injuries happen early in the season because guys try to ramp up too fast. Their arms move so fast and the velocities are so high nowadays that players can get hurt. So it is all about protecting our pitchers and making sure our legs are under us.

“We spend about four hours a week right now with the guys and then an additional four in strength and conditioning and speed work. We’ll do that for two weeks until we start scrimmaging and playing more full games. That will happen in the next 10-to-14 days.”

Only one of WVU’s top seven players in innings pitched [Carson Estridge] returns from last year’s team that went 36-24 and advanced to the NCAA Super Regional round.

“The pitching staff is unproven. We like them. We like what they can do. We like their stuff. We like how they compete. But we’ve got to see them compete and get extended outs. A starting pitcher needs to have three pitches and be able to throw a hundred pitches, go five innings and hopefully go nine innings like Derek Clark. We’ll learn that here in the next three or four weeks. We have an idea. But we’ll probably whittle eight potential starters down to three or four.”

With the notable exceptions of first-round pick JJ Wetherholt and Reed Chumley, seven of WVU’s nine starters in the field return.

“That suggests that we should be competent offensively. We’ve got things to prove but we definitely have more experience on that side of the ball.”

West Virginia natives Grant Hussey and Kyle West bring prodigious power to the Mountaineer lineup. Hussey, a Parkersburg South graduate, established the new career home run mark during his junior season. West, a Hedgesville graduate, hit 14 home runs last spring in his first season with the Mountaineers.

“We have been able to bring in more talented West Virginians into this program. Also, the quality of baseball in this state has skyrocketed over the last five years.

“Both of those kids are not only left-handed power hitters, they love the state and they are hard-workers and high-character kids. It is icing on top that Grant Hussey broke Jedd Gyorko’s all-time home run record. Now Gyorko is on staff with us working every day, which is really, really fun. Then we added a transfer portal player, [North Marion alumnus] Jace Rinehart. He was from USC-Upstate. He hit 18 homers. He’s a right-handed power hitter. Those three West Virginians are the ‘Smash Brothers’.”

Without any type of spring training or exhibition games, Sabins is stressing the importance of each contest as the Mountaineers seek a third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.

“It doesn’t matter if it is February 18th or May 11th. All those games count the same. It doesn’t matter who you are playing. Sometimes a ‘lesser opponent’ could affect your season more over the course of 56 regular season games. Every game absolutely is critical. I think that is the beauty and the fun part of college baseball.”

Construction continues on the new Baseball Biomechanics and Performance Center and indoor practice facility adjacent to the stadium in Granville, and is expected to be complete in ten weeks.

“That’s going to be up and running March 1st. March-Westin, [WVU Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director for Capital Projects, Facilities and Event Management] April Messerly, Bill Lynn and the team, they have done an unbelievable job staying on track there. It is 8,200 square feet with two cages, three pitching lanes, two warm-up areas. It will be huge.

“We are going from the stone ages of being the most northeastern team in the Big 12 with no covered cages at our facility, the only one in the Big 12, to having the most technologically advanced systems in the world here.”

After nine seasons as an assistant coach for Randy Mazey, Sabins is weeks away from leading his team on the field for the first time.

“We love this community. My family has been able to stay here. My kids are in school here and my kids were born here. That part has been incredible.

“Bigger change probably once the season hits is some of the decision-making that needs to happen in-game. That will be the first time I do that. I think that will be a little bit of a difference.”