By Bill Nestor Sports Editor
The West Virginia University baseball team is once again in the hunt for a Big 12 Conference title.
Heading into this past weekend’s series with Kansas State, the Mountaineers were just four games back of conference leading Kansas. WVU took a 28 and 12 record and a top 20 ranking into the series with State and were looking to rebound from a series loss to Cincinnati last weekend. It was bad enough that the Bearcats took former WVU assistant basketball coach and former Fairmont State Head Coach Jerrod Calhoun (he was at West Virginia from 2007 to 2012 and Fairmont State from 2012 to 2017) They also, however, took two of those games.
It happened to be only the second series setback the Mountaineers have suffered all season. The first was the University of Central Florida back in early April, which shows the dominance that second year head coach Steve Sabins and his squad have had this year.
After this series, there are just two more left on the conference schedule. One of those just happens to be with the front running Jayhawks, which makes every Big 12 battle that much more crucial. So a well-timed Alumni Weekend was put into place to honor the 1996 Big East Championship team at Kendrick Family Ballpark, a brilliant move for multiple reasons. It would provide a solid boost in attendance (there was an expectation of 65 total former players with approximately 19 of those from the ‘96 team along with their family and friends.) and it would bring back that championship feeling that can sometimes be contagious.
The 1996 team shocked the world 30 years ago in its first year in the Big East under first year head coach Greg Van Zant (the current softball coach at Bridgeport High School) had just taken over for legend Dale Ramesburg. A slow start didn’t impede this group of talented players that bonded into a close knit family. There were so many great players, and even better people, that time doesn’t allow any mention of them, but a few that stood out included Chris Enochs and Chris Swaney, a pair of in-state products that were difference-makers that season.
Enochs from Oak Glen and Swaney from Clarksburg were key components on that year’s team. Enochs was a flame thrower that earned eight wins that year, with most of them coming down the stretch. Enochs would be taken as the 11th pick in the 1997 Major League draft by Oakland. Swaney, the former Washington Irving all-stater, led the team in at-bats, had a .380 batting average with 68 hits, including 12 doubles. Swaney has several big hits and highlight reel defensive plays in the postseason.
Their efforts, coupled with those of the rest of their talent-laden roster, moved West Virginia to within a pair of wins of the College World Series, a dream the program still chases today. The bond that group shared is still apparent today and Sabins has to be hoping his group took note of the closeness of these players 30 years later. Hopefully, the current Mountaineers can catch lightning in a bottle and finish the job with the final destination being Omaha.
Nothing would make the alumni prouder!
That will do it for now! Until next week . . . take care and God Bless!
