OMAHA, Neb. — Oliver Luck had a decision to make in the fall of 2011, a few weeks after the Big 12 Conference announced the addition of West Virginia University as a member school, effective the following year.
Should he recommend dropping what had been a mediocre Big East baseball program or commit to giving the Mountaineers what they needed to be competitive going forward in one of the sport’s top leagues?
“Obviously, I was biased toward the latter,” Luck, the school’s athletic director at the time, said this week.
It’s been apparent for years Luck made the right choice, but never more than now with the Mountaineers set to play in the College World Series for the first time. They will face Sun Belt member Troy, also making its CWS debut, in the opening game Friday at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.
For West Virginia, the trip to Nebraska is the realization of the vision Randy Mazey had when he was hired as coach in June 2012, the summer before his team’s first Big 12 season. Relying on players from traditional recruiting areas in and around the state, as the Mountaineers continue to do, those early teams were surprisingly competitive.