West Virginia’s Grant Hussey celebrates after hitting a home run during Tuesday’s game against Pittsburgh in Morgantown. (Photo by David Pennock)

MORGANTOWN — While sifting through the ashes of baseball game that had self-destructed on West Virginia in its final moments in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, a four-run lead turning into a flash fire of defeat, one stumbled upon a couple of moments that said more about the Mountaineers’ success this season than the travesty of the evening said about any frailties the loss may have exposed.

One took place at the first base bag on the final out of a second inning-ending double play that preserved what was at the time a 4-0 WVU lead.

With one out and a runner on first base a rather routine ground ball had been hit to shortstop Brodie Kresser, who stepped on second base for the force out, then delivered what seemed a rather routine throw to first base.

But somehow, the throw was terribly off line, sailing not only wide of its mark to the outfield side of the bag, but about to skim the earth as it arrived at ankle height, if that.

On a night where the most simple of pop flies turned into wind blown doubles over and over, no one would dare expect that first baseman Grant Hussey to be able to make this play.

Glancing at the 6-4 and 225-pound first baseman whose reputation is of being WVU’s all-time career home run leader, one never expect such dexterity.

But Hussey laid his body in a rather awkward way, backhanded the throw while somehow keeping his tippy-toe on the bag.

It was an impossible play to end the inning, yet he has proven himself capable of doing such nimble things around the bag that if they did give Big 12 Gold Gloves, he would most certainly own one of them.

This, you see, not was a one and done moment, nor was it necessarily him doing what came naturally.

As it has been with this baseball team all season, the drive for perfection has carried Hussey to places a lesser dedicated player may never even attempt to reach.

“He might be the best first baseman in the nation. I would vote he’s really the best first baseman in the nation,” his coach, Steve Sabins said of him earlier this season. “He goes unnoticed a little bit, but there’s usually two or three picks in the game, two foul pops. He’s always in tune with the pitchers on pickoffs. And then he makes the spectacular play on top of the routine play.

“You go back over the course of the year,” Sabins continued. “I’d really like to put together a highlight film on him at first base, just for the future of our teams. Just to show it to guys and tell them ‘This is standard. If you want to be a first baseman, you can make all these plays. He’s a little bit ballerina-ish around the bag with high throws, the way his feet move around the bag is incredible to watch.”

It is as atypical of what you might expect as is the 39-8 record sports going into the weekend series at Kansas State as they try to wrap up the Big 12 crown.

He is the whole package, just as the team has seemed all year to be the whole package.

“I think folks sometimes think of a first baseman as a hit-first power position, but it’s different than that. That infielder handles the ball more than anybody. If you can handle the ball, it’s a big part of the reason we’ve been winning and it goes unnoticed a lot,” Sabins said.

“He likes it, he worked hard at it every day. It’s a natural thing that has come a little bit easier for him. He just keeps getting better because he likes it and enjoys taking ground balls. It’s kind of like watching a guy go play golf every day, go to work and do everything the same every day,” the coach continued.

“He makes every throw accurately and picks a million balls. It’s special to watch him train. It’s not like a ‘high effort, I’m working my butt off’ thing. It’s more like a car ride going through the countryside. That’s what that guy looks like when he’s training defensively. It’s just like a nice day. He’s an effortless defender.”

“Last year I really picked up the confidence with my defense,” Hussey said at the time. “I kind of like to stay under the radar with it, let it go unnoticed. That’s always a good thing when you stay unnoticed as a fielder. Last year brought up my confidence, had a good year and it’s stayed that way this year.”

As noted earlier that was one glowing ember to take out of the rubble of defeat, the other belonged to Sabins himself.

All season long he has been able to wring the most out of his players, doing it with an innate knowledge of what they need and while in the end that didn’t come to the forefront in Pittsburgh, there was that one moment in the fifth inning when you understood why he’s been able to do what he’s done.

Reliever Tyler Hutson came into the game in the fifth inning and put down a Panther rally that grew to 3 runs and cut the WVU margin to 4-3. He’d pitched a solid fourth inning, but now trouble was brewing.

Hutson had given up a leadoff single on a 3-1 pitch to put the tying run on base, then fallen behind Pitt’s top hitter, Luke Cantwell, 3-0. A walk would move that tying run to second with none out.

Sabins headed to the mound. He could have delivered a lecture on the severity of the situation and on the necessity of throwing a strike. The mood could have been deep and heavy, but that would have only increased the pressure.

But, if you looked closely through the wind and the rain, you would see both pitcher and coach laughing on the mound. Whatever Sabins said had broken the mood, lifting the load off his pitcher’s back.

He responded with two strikes to Cantwell, then coerced a ground out from him, followed by another infield grounder and strikeout to maintain the lead.

It was a little thing, barely noticed, but it may have just allowed the Mountaineers to take that solid lead into the bottom of the ninth.

It’s why you don’t worry too much about the loss to Pitt lingering into the weekend.