Mountaineers headed to Arizona to open the NCAA Tournament – WV MetroNews

(This story will be updated)

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In his final season leading the WVU baseball program, Randy Mazey has led the Mountaineers to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for just the second time in school history.

West Virginia earned an at-large bid into the field of 64 and the Mountaineers are the No. 3 seed in the Tucson Regional, hosted by No. 13 seed Arizona. WVU will face Dallas Baptist in the regional opener on Friday. The game time and broadcast information are to be announced.

Arizona (36-21) secured the Pac-12 Tournament title in Saturday with a 4-3 win over USC. Dallas Baptist (44-13) is tied for the third-most wins in the country. DBU won the Conference USA Tournament title with a win over Louisiana Tech on Sunday. Arizona will open the regional against Grand Canyon.

The only other time West Virginia earned consecutive NCAA Tournament bids came under Steve Harrick from 1961-1964.

The NCAA Tournament bid is the fourth for West Virginia since 2017.

West Virginia (33-22) finished in fourth place in the Big 12 Conference regular season standings. After an 11-9 start, the Mountaineers won 22 of their next 35 games. WVU closed the regular season by winning two of three games at TCU. However, they were eliminated in two games from the Big 12 Conference Tournament. WVU is 36th in the official NCAA RPI.

Junior shortstop JJ Wetherholt (.356 batting average, 8 HR, 30 RBI in 31 games) and senior pitcher Derek Clark (7-2, 3.05 ERA) were named first team All-Big 12. Senior infielder Reed Chumley (.305 batting average, team-high 15 home runs) was a second-team selection.

Mazey has posted a 369-272 record in twelve seasons leading the Mountaineers. He will leave as the third-winningest coach in program history.

Winners of the 16 NCAA Regionals will advance to best-of-three Super Regional play. The eight Super Regional winners qualify for the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., which begins on June 14.