West Virginia's Ben Lumsden (37) bunts against Oklahoma State on Friday. William Wotring/The Dominion Post

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Prior to this season, Ben Lumsden had started 101 games in his college baseball career, 51 at UT Arlington as a freshman and another 50 last season at WVU.

It’s with that background that likely made Steve Sabins’ conversation with Lumsden earlier this season slightly uncomfortable.

“In the middle of the year, we had a meeting and I was like, ‘Do you want to be here?’ ” Sabins said. “He was like, ‘Do you want me here?’ Yeah, I wanted him here, but he had to get better. He wasn’t good enough to get on the field.”

It is that type of straight-forward conversation that can send a college athlete any number of ways.

Generally, it’s conversations like those that will lead the athlete to the transfer portal, especially after he went from 50 starts in 2024 to four starts a season later.

Not Lumsden, who took over as the Mountaineers’ starting first baseman during the Clemson Regional last week.

In the 13-12 victory against Kentucky to win that regional, Lumsden was 2 for 5 and drove in four runs.

Turns out Lumsden did want to be at WVU.

“He swallowed his pride. That’s hard to hear,” Sabins continued.

“A guy who was a stud for us last year had to swallow his pride. He went and worked harder than that guy has ever worked before, and that’s what this is about.”

It is an inside glimpse to the type of culture and reputation Sabins wants to build at WVU.

He is not looking for the type of situation where players get too comfortable and slack off after earning a starting position.

That’s not going to lead WVU (44-14) to the next level.

“It’s not easy,” Sabins explains. “You have to work harder than everybody else. LSU has got good players. Texas has good players. Kentucky has good players and great resources. We’re not going to be better than them by working half as hard, that’s for damn sure.”

He’s also not looking for players who take the easy way out and transfer when adversity strikes.

“Currently, it’s very easy to run when things don’t go your way,” he said. “It’s extremely easy to quit or to think the grass is greener.

“Young people have a decision to make, and it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for young people to make the decision of putting your feet in, dig in, get better and don’t blame others. It’s not a leadership issue. It could be a you issue.”

And so we get back to Lumsden, who Sabins said will one day, “Play pro ball, if he continues to get better.”

Lumsden’s two-run base hit in the fourth inning tied the Kentucky game, 4-4.

In the eighth inning, Lumsden was even more clutch, coming up with another two-RBI base hit that tied the game, 12-12, before Armani Guzman scored the go-ahead run with another base hit.

For added measure, Lumsden also had an RBI single in the ninth inning that helped the Mountaineers beat Clemson 9-6. WVU scored four runs in that ninth inning to take the lead.

All of this after Lumsden suddenly became the starter at first base, taking over for four-year starter Grant Hussey, the school’s all-time leader in home runs.

It’s likely Lumsden will be back in the starting lineup when the Mountaineers travel to No. 6 overall seeded LSU (46-15) at 2 p.m. Saturday for the super regionals.

“In these scenarios, when you’re going up against really great teams, you have to maximize everything you got,” Sabins said. “Every bullet that you can pull out, you try to. I just thought that Ben Lumsden gave us the best chance offensively in some of those places.”