MORGANTOWN — Before departing Globe Life Field and the Big 12 tournament, Randy Mazey seemed confident his parting words weren’t his last of the season.
“I told our guys, ‘Don’t anyone leave this huddle right now thinking the season is over,’ ” the WVU baseball head coach said. “As good as we’ve played this year, I think we’ve put ourselves in position to play in the postseason. If we don’t, somebody is going to have to explain to me how that happened.”
West Virginia (33-22) entered the Big 12 tournament seemingly having built up enough momentum to garner an at-large spot for the NCAA tournament that begins Friday at 16 different host sites around the country.
The Mountaineers exited their conference tournament as if they had run out of gas. First, losing to Oklahoma in the opening round, before allowing a home run and three doubles in an 8-5 loss against Kansas State, a team WVU had swept less than a week earlier.
“You play a long season, and everyone goes through a period where you lose three or four games in a row and you’re not playing well,” Mazey said. “That hasn’t happened to us this year. Maybe this was it.”
Mazey said he fully expects WVU to be included in one of the 16 regionals announced Monday, and added the Mountaineers could gain some type of advantage in being well-rested heading into a regional.
He spoke those words on Thursday. Since then, WVU’s path to an at-large bid isn’t quite as clear as it once was.
For starters, going 0-2 in the Big 12 tournament saw WVU’s RPI numbers drop from the high 30s to No. 47.
What’s played a larger impact, though, is the results of other conference tournaments.
Dallas Baptist (Missouri Valley) and Gonzaga (West Coast Conference) both took early losses in their conference tournaments, opening the door for those leagues to unexpectedly become two-bid leagues. If that were to happen, that’s two less at-large spots.
Also, Pitt surprisingly advanced to the ACC semifinals. If the Panthers were to win the ACC, that could also swipe an at-large spot from another team.
West Virginia’s argument for inclusion is its 14 wins against Big 12 teams during the regular season, which was one more than it had in 2019, when the Mountaineers hosted a regional.
WVU also has seven wins against teams currently projected in the field — nine if Pitt was to sneak in from the ACC — and registered 19 wins against Quad 1 and Quad 2 teams, which generally accounts for the top 100 of the RPI.
“For us to do what we did this season says a lot about our kids,” Mazey said. “We haven’t lost three games in a row this whole season. The character of this team is that you get your backs against the wall and play really good baseball.”
Still, projections from both D1 Baseball and Baseball America put the Mountaineers squarely on the bubble.
Baseball America lists WVU among its first four teams out of the tournament, at No. 66 among the 64-team field.
DI Baseball has WVU listed among its last four in, at No. 62, and has the Mountaineers slated to play in the same region as top-ranked Tennessee.
All of this could have been avoided if WVU found a way to win one or two games in the Big 12 tournament, but it didn’t happen.
“We don’t think our season is over,” Mazey said.
The Mountaineers must wait until Monday — the selection show is at noon on ESPN2 — to find out if that’s true.
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