The West Virginia Black Bears will reveal their team logo today, and unless it’s a jug of moonshine, I maintain it’s a mistake. Whatever the look, Randy Mazey is ensuring this remains a college baseball town. His third West Virginia looks a lot like his first two in that these Mountaineers seem willing and able to eschew expectations and play exactly as well as they want to play.

WVU, with basically no experienced pitching and but a few seasoned bats, to say nothing of having hardly any outdoor practice opportunities, opened the season at No. 24 Clemson over the weekend and won two of three.

“These are the types of games and series that when the season is over people look back and say, ‘Jeez they came out from practicing inside and beat a Top 25 team on the road and won the series,'” coach Randy Mazey said. “I couldn’t feel better about this team right now.”

The pitching staff posted a 1.04 ERA in 26.0 innings with 20 strikeouts and 10 walks, holding opponents to a .253 batting average. Freshman right-hander BJ Myers started on Friday, taking the no-decision after allowing no runs on four hits with five strikeouts in 5.0 innings. Sophomore right-hander Chad Donato got the victory on Sunday, allowing one run on seven hits with five strikeouts in 6.0 innings. Seven of the eight relievers did not allow a run last weekend. Junior right-hander Blake Smith picked up the win in game one after throwing 4.0 innings of shutout relief. Smith allowed two hits, struck out five and walked two.

“We talked about the question marks on the mound the other day and we had three more turn into exclamation points today,” Mazey said following Sunday’s win. “A sophomore with literally three innings of experience went out there and pitched his rear end off, followed up by two freshmen holding a Top 25 team to one run on their own field. That’s super encouraging for the rest of the season.”

That’s the very good news. The bad? Just 17 more games before a home game! Up next? Three at Georgia Southern, which would be 4-0 if not for giving up a game-winning grand slam to Georgia Tech Tuesday on a 2-2 pitch with two down in the seventh inning Tuesday. What’s the big deal about the Eagles? Just like the Mountaineers, they too were picked sixth in their conference preseason poll, and GSU actually had two first-place Sun Belt votes.