The Mountain East Conference has never known another baseball tournament champion other than West Virginia State. In the conference's first two years of existence, it was the Yellow Jackets who held the trophy aloft at the end of the weekend.
WVSU begins its quest for a third straight tournament title, and the automatic NCAA Division II regional berth that comes with it, at 3 p.m. Thursday at Epling Stadium in Beckley. The Yellow Jackets (29-13) face West Liberty (27-22) in the first round.
That type of history should leave State with a pretty big target on its back. The other five teams in the tournament - West Liberty, Concord, Notre Dame, Shepherd and Glenville State - all know who needs knocked off the mountaintop in order to claim the crown.
WVSU head coach Sean Loyd doesn't mention targets to his team. He can't say for sure what the rest of the tournament field is thinking, so he can't say definitively that's where they're aiming. Each year brings a different team with a different lineup and different chemistry.
But that, he said, is helpful in a tournament run. With that change in chemistry, there's always an energy driving the team to win another title.
"We want the heritage and history of the program to perpetuate itself," said Loyd, who on Wednesday was named MEC coach of the year. "That's the idea, the things that [former WVSU coach Cal Bailey] did over 37 years, and we were lucky enough last year to pick up right on that. We want to continue to do that. That's absolutely a driving force in our message."
The Yellow Jackets had won 15 West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles, the last in 2008. They kicked off the MEC era with a pair of titles. State pitcher Dustin Kincaid said this team does not want to be the one forced to watch another Mountain East program take that trophy home.
"It's not really a burden, but it is an honor," Kincaid said. "We'd just really like to keep that title here."
State's pitching definitely will help the cause. The Yellow Jacket staff's 3.13 ERA is tops in the conference and 12th-best in Division II. Four WVSU pitchers earned All-MEC honors - Kincaid and Curtis Johnson making the first team and Josh Falbo and Tyler Hall making the second team.
Loyd also sees his team's bats coming to life. State is batting .289 entering the tournament and its 19 home runs are fifth in the conference. Loyd doesn't pay much attention to the numbers, though. He judges hitting using more intangible criteria.
"I judge it by the types of swings I see individual guys having and the types of at-bats they have and how they react to certain counts," Loyd said, "how they're being sequenced and how they react to that. I think most of the guys in the lineup have improved over the last two months."
That late-season improvement has been a staple of the WVSU program, said outfielder Trent Porter, one of five All-MEC first teamers on the roster with Kincaid, Johnson, second baseman Trayvis Patterson and third baseman Josh Kiser. Porter considers the Yellow Jackets a playoff team that relishes playoff practice. That excitement boosts the entire roster's spirits for the postseason.
"This time of the year, when you know you're in the playoffs, if you can't get excited, you shouldn't be here. That's how we all look at it. We all get amped up for this week. We all buy in."
West Virginia State went 9-5 against tournament opponents this year - 2-0 versus West Liberty, 2-2 versus Concord, 2-0 versus Notre Dame, 0-2 versus Shepherd and 3-1 versus Glenville State. Loyd isn't basing his future on regular-season results. The postseason, he said, is a different animal.
"I know it's cliché to say this, but everybody's 0-0 now," he said. "Everyone brings their own motivation within their team to the tournament with them. You don't know what messages the coaches are giving to the other teams, so you don't know what's driving each team. There's going to be six teams there with one goal in mind."
Thursday's other games in the double-elimination tournament are Shepherd (32-12) vs. Concord (23-25) at 11 a.m. and Notre Dame (27-23) vs. Glenville State (19-30) at 7 p.m.