Published: May 16, 2008 01:22 am            

COLUMN: Clear thinking puts WVU in good spot

MORGANTOWN — During the course of a season in any sport, there are certain games that can change the destiny of a team.

West Virginia University’s baseball team faced such a game last weekend. Off to a spectacular start, the Mountaineers were cruising toward a place in the Big East Tournament, a spot that could lead to a selection to the NCAA tournament.

But, just as they were ready to make that leap forward, they made a trip to New York and were mugged by St. John’s, the league’s top team, losing three times.

Now they were looking at the difficult situation of having to face Louisville, which advanced to last year’s College World Series, at home and then on the road at Cincinnati, a team that has clinched its spot in the Big East showdown.

When the Mountaineers dropped the first game of a Friday doubleheader to Louisville, 6-2, their losing streak had grown to four games.

The entire season was on the brink of collapsing. Coach Greg Van Zant needed a victory and he needed it now, and so it was that he turned to his left-hander Matt Yurish, a pitcher who is fully equipped to handle such urgent situations.

First of all, Yurish brought with him the maturity and experience of a senior, a man who had pitched more than 235 collegiate innings and who had emerged as the Mountaineers’ best pitcher this season.

But unlike so many other players, Yurish possessed in his education something that had helped the former Hedgesville High star in baseball, basketball and football not only bounce back from a disappointing junior season but thrive in such a situation.

Matt Yurish is enrolled in a program at WVU called sports behavior.

OK, Sigmund Freud he ain’t, but then again Freud never had the curveball Yurish possesses.

“I picked a major at the beginning of my sophomore year,” Yurish explained. “This involved two things I was interested in.”

It combined sports and psychology. True, it was taught out of the physical education department and not out of the psychology department, but it involved a core load of psychology courses.

“It wasn’t anything that would help technically with baseball but it involved the mental approach to sports,” he said.

The biggest lesson he took out of the course was one he would have to use in this game against Louisville and when he pitches this weekend against Cincinnati, if that game still has a bearing on the Mountaineers’ effort to reach the Big East tournament.

“You can’t get too high and you can’t get too low,” Yurish said. “You have to stay calm.”

That, of course, is what the book says. It’s far easier to tell someone to stay calm than it is to do it when you are standing 60-feet, 6-inches from a guy hitting .435 with runners at second and third and your entire team’s future riding on you making good pitches in that situation.

It’s something he’s been applying for some time now. Last year, for example, was a difficult one for him as his 6-3 record as a sophomore with a 3.84 ERA slipped to 4-5 with a 4.48 ERA as a junior.

“I had a losing record. I did not pitch well,” Yurish admits.

Admitting that is the first step, not finding excuses for your bad performance. Then you have to take steps to correct what was wrong.

“A lot it has been learning yourself,” he said.

Once you do that, know what you can do, what you can’t, what makes you tick and what makes you ticked off, you can make the proper alterations, which Yurish did to get himself back to a pitcher with a 6-1 record and 3.50 ERA.

“You’re going to go through some tough times,” Yurish said. “You have to learn to realize it’s never as bad as it seems and it’s never as good as it seems.”

Armed with knowledge as well as good stuff, Yurish went out against Louisville in what was probably the biggest game he ever had pitched.

“You try not to dwell on it,” Yurish said. “They had a big winning streak going; we had a little losing streak. We had to put a stop to it.”

Simple as that. Yurish was brimming with confidence as he took the mound and, strange as it may seem, such confidence is contagious. Teammates seem to play better when a pitcher radiates good feeling, and such was the case as he pitched his first complete game of the year.

“I was throwing pretty good but they squared up pretty good on some fastballs,” he said. “We ran them down, though.”

Backed by a strong defense and his own positive attitude, Yurish changed the course of the season for a Mountaineer team that had ridden its offense all year.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.

        

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