Mountaineers among ‘first 3 out’ for NCAA baseball field

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia was bypassed for an NCAA tournament at-large bid Monday, relegated to one of “the first three teams left out,” according to selection committee chairman Joel Erdmann.

After winning 17 of their final 21 games, the Mountaineers (36-22) featured a 63 RPI and narrowly missed earning an automatic bid during Sunday’s 11-10 loss to TCU in the Big 12 championship game.

“I think we deserved to get in,” coach Randy Mazey said Monday. “I think our players know that we deserved to get in, and (the selection committee) just made us mad now. That’s really going to help our fall practice.”

MORE: Complete NCAA baseball field

Marshall (60) was among the teams with higher RPIs who were excluded, along with North Carolina (18), Michigan (38), Oregon State (45), Creighton (46), BYU (53) and Alabama (62).

The lowest-RPI team to receive an at-large bid was No. 55 Washington.

West Virginia was on the wrong side of the bubble in 2014 when it collapsed during the final three weeks, the opposite storyline of this season’s near-miss.

“Two years ago I was told that’s why we got left out, how we finished,” Mazey said. “But how we finished this year didn’t get us in.”

The last Mountaineers baseball team to reach an NCAA regional was 1996. Considering how close West Virginia came this season, dropping four of five midseason home games to Canisius (RPI No. 197) and Furman (No. 135) proved pivotal.

“Losing one home game to a bad-RPI team can be the difference in 10 points,” Mazey said.

The roster loses only a few seniors—pitchers Ross Vance, Blake Smith and centerfielder KC Huth—while junior ace Chad Donato is among the draft-eligible players who could be face a decision this summer. That gives Mazey a substantial returning nucleus.

“They’re super-young and now they’re mad, so look out,” Mazey said. “Everybody in that locker room, as bad as it hurts them right now, I don’t think there’s any doubt in their minds that this will be a regional team next year, if they stay together.”





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