No. 24 WVU back in NCAA baseball tournament for third consecutive time, faces Kentucky
MORGANTOWN — West Virginia repeated baseball history Monday, earning its third consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament for just the second time in the program's lifetime.
'It's been 61 years since we've made back-to-back-to-back regionals,' WVU head coach Steve Sabins said. 'It's an honor to be the leader of the program when that happens. Coach (Randy) Mazey had a lot to do with that. To be able to continue what we started and keep winning ball games and keep making regionals, at the end of the day, however you want to slice it, it's about getting to this tournament.'
The last time WVU played in three consecutive NCAA tournaments was 1961-64, when the Mountaineers made it four consecutive seasons under former coach Steve Harrick.
The 24th-ranked Mountaineers (41-14) got into the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Clemson, S.C. Regional, where the host Tigers (44-16) will be the favorite to advance.
The Mountaineers will face Kentucky (29-24) out of the SEC on Friday in the opening game, while 12th-ranked Clemson will host USC Upstate.
Kentucky defeated WVU 10-0 in regional competition in the 2023 NCAA tournament.
The regional round is double elimination with the first-game winners playing each other, while the first-game losers play each other in an elimination game. The first team to three victories wins the regional.
It is a format the Mountaineers know well, having won the Tucson, Ariz. Regional last season as the No. 3 seed to advance to the school's first-ever super regional.
'We're no slouch by any means,' WVU outfielder Kyle West said. 'People will look at the scouting reports and they'll see some of the best offensive numbers we could have. They'll look at everything and know that no team can be taken lightly at this point of the year.'
Kentucky was one of a record 13 teams from the SEC to earn a spot in the NCAA field of 64, with eight of the 13 earning a regional host position, meaning one of the top 16 seeds.
Clemson, which lost in the finals of the ACC tournament against North Carolina, was awarded the No. 11 overall seed.
Whoever advances out of the Clemson Regional will advance to play the winner of the Baton Rouge (La.) Regional, where LSU — the No. 6 overall seed — is the host.
'You have an opportunity to do special things, once you get your foot in the door,' Sabins said. 'We've said from the very beginning our team has been built on opportunity. This is another opportunity for our team. If you get into the tournament, you've got a shot. That's all you can ask for.'
By making it into the NCAA tournament, Sabins earned an automatic one-year extension, and is now signed with the Mountaineers through the 2030 season that will earn him an extra $525,000 for that season.
His contract is now essentially a six-year deal worth $2.775 million.
The NCAA tournament also serves as one final opportunity for the Mountaineers to reset and possibly gain back the momentum they had at the start of the season.
It certainly wasn't a strong finish. WVU enters the NCAA tournament having lost nine of its last 13 games. The Mountaineers were eliminated in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament, 12-1, by Arizona and were shut out twice by Kansas in the final three-game series of the regular season.
On the plus side, WVU did win the Big 12 regular season title and finished with a program-record 41 wins. Sabins earned a $30,000 bonus for winning the regular season championship and another $25,000 bonus for making it into the NCAA regional round.
'I felt good going in that we were in the tournament,' Sabins said. 'I didn't know exactly where we were going to go, but our resumé certainly showed we were a tournament contender after winning the Big 12 regular-season title.'
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