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After home finale fizzles, WVU settles for No. 7 seed in Big 12 tourney

West Virginia second baseman Kyle Gray tags out Baylor’s Andy Thomas on a second-inning pickoff Saturday. The Bears won the series rubber game 6-2.

 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. —  When an unsatisfying regular season fizzled out with a 6-2 loss to Baylor on Saturday afternoon, West Virginia turned its focus to next week’s Big 12 tournament and the long odds of reaching an NCAA regional.

“We know what we have to do: We have to go out there and win it,” said pitcher B.J. Myers. “So every game we’re fighting for our life, fighting to keep playing.”

After dropping their final three series and piling up their most Big 12 losses in the six seasons since realignment, West Virginia (27-25, 9-15) will be the No. 7 seed when the conference tournament opens Wednesday in Oklahoma City. With an NCAA at-large bid no longer in reach, the Mountaineers must win the crown to advance — a disappointing position for a team that opened the preseason in top 25.

“But we haven’t played that bad,” West Virginia Randy Mazey contended. “The long portion of the season is over, and now it’s turned into the short portion. We’ve always played well in Oklahoma City, and I don’t see any reason why we’re not going to do the same thing again.”

MORE: Big 12 tournament bracket

Baylor (32-19, 13-11) secured the Big 12’s No. 5 seed by winning the final two games of the weekend set at Mon County Ballpark and limiting WVU to five runs — matching the fewest runs the Mountaineers have ever scored in a Big 12 series.

Empty chances haunted WVU in the finale.

A bases-loaded, none-out situation in the second inning came up when Jimmy Galusky bounced to third for a 5-2-3 double play.

West Virginia had runners at second and third an inning later, but Baylor left-hander Tyler Thomas fanned Marques Inman and Kyle Gray before Tyler Doanes flied out.

“We lost this game in the second and third inning,” Mazey said. “Bases loaded, nobody out and didn’t score (in the second inning). Second and third the next inning and didn’t score. We should’ve never let their starter out of the game without scoring against him.”

Leading 4-0, Thomas technically yielded a run in the fourth inning when he walked Ivan Gonzalez and reliever Alex Phillips (6-1) gave up Braden Zarbniskiy’s RBI single. Left fielder Davion Downey botched a chance to throw out Gonzalez at home by overrunning the ball and letting Zarbnisky reach third base. Brandon White’s ensuing single cut the deficit to 4-2.

Phillips was untouchable otherwise in a four-inning stint, striking out five. West Virginia stranded 10 runners against the Bears, who lead the league with a 3.26 ERA.

Baylor helped its at-large chances recently by winning 18 of its final 21 regular-season games.

“The big thing was that we knew it was a big weekend and we handled it well,” said Bears coach Steve Rodriguez. “The stress and energy levels were a little higher than normal.

“The postseason stuff, we still have to find our way in and do a lot of things right and make the decision for the committee as tough as possible. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that.”

After a pregame senior day ceremony, Meyers (1-2) made his second start of the series for WVU and gave up a run in three innings.

Alek Manoah endured a difficult fourth by surrendering Cole Haring’s RBI single and T.J. Raguse’s two-run double.

WVU’s other senior, Shane Ennis, pitched a scoreless inning but Baylor added two insurance runs against Zarbnisky in the ninth.

WVU draws Pokes in OKC

The Mountaineers open Big 12 tournament action against No. 2 seed Oklahoma State on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern.

The double-elimination bracket culminates Sunday with the survivors of two four-team divisions playing a winner-take-all championship. West Virginia went 3-6 against the teams in its half of the bracket.





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