Dawson Montesa “Didn’t Have the Best Season” But Saves Best for Last

MORGANTOWN, W.Va – WVU Baseball right-hander Dawson Montesa looked like the weak link in the Mountaineers’ rotation through the first three months of the season. He posted a 5.83 ERA across 17 appearances (14 starts), dropping out of the Mountaineers’ rotation heading into the Big 12 Tournament as West Virginia’s coaching staff searched for the best way to make it through a win-or-go-home event.

Montesa saved his best performance of the season for the brightest stage, however, covering 7.1 innings for the Mountaineers’ depleted pitching staff in a do-or-die win over Wake Forest. While Montesa allowed five runs (four earned), his ability to eat innings and keep West Virginia ahead of the curve proved critical. After the 10-5 win, Montesa described how two weeks in the bullpen helped him get back to the basics.

“Obviously I didn’t have the best season or up to my standards, but I like to flush it,” Montesa said. “Sometimes the ‘pen gives me a little reset, I know I can go out there and pound the zone.”

WVU Baseball head coach Steve Sabins described Montesa’s 122-pitch outing a “huge performance, as big as I’ve been a part of.”

“The dude to the left of me just put the team on his back. Absolutely,” Sabins said. “Carried this thing, had his best outing of the season in the biggest moment… That’s what postseason baseball’s all about. Getting opportunities and seizing them.”

“Could’ve Folded”

West Virginia took a 3-0 lead early, but the Demon Deacons battled back to tie it, hitting a game-tying home run off Montesa in the fourth inning. Sabins praised the junior, who transferred in from D-II Adelphi in the offseason, for the way he bounced back.

“Give up a big home run, tie ballgame, could’ve folded, could’ve decided that it was a little too tough, that that offense was too good or anything else, but just kept coming at them,” Sabins said. He also praised his pitcher for the way he responded with the season on the line after West Virginia lost to Kentucky on May 30.

“You don’t sleep and you feel like you have the flu, so to be able to come back and see Dawson do what he did… was pretty special,” Sabins said.

Montesa said Sabins told him he’d get the ball for the elimination game after Saturday night’s loss.

“It was after the game last night, I was actually in Chipotle, and I got a text saying ‘you’ve got the ball tomorrow,’” Montesa said. “And I pardon my — I’m not gonna say it — but I said ‘hell yeah.’ I’m just like ‘hell yeah,’ I knew I wanted the ball. I was gonna tell him even before that, I want the ball.”

Proving Themselves

Sabins described Montesa as a diamond in the rough, expressing confidence in his raw ability… and perhaps more important, his attitude.

“He’s one of those guys with the highest-end stuff and athleticism, and then it’s all about piecing that together… Always knew the ceiling is as high as anybody on the team, and his attitude,” Sabins said. “When they talk it’s team first, it’s not about roles… it’s not thought out, it’s not calculated, it’s just pure.”

Sabins said that after West Virginia battled back from a 6-0 deficit on Saturday and then saw Montesa shove with the season on the line, his team has confidence that they can continue to defy the odds and keep their season alive. Now, they’ll need to win consecutive elimination games against Kentucky.

“They’ve been able to see us in these tough spots and bounce back, and I think as soon as somebody counts us out the entire season… this team has answered. And so I think they’ve just played with that chip on their shoulder mentality,” Sabins said. “You get to Monday, and then things can get weird.”