Siegel

Will it be the team that forged a two-game lead at the top of the Big 12 regular season standings? Or will be the team that has lost its last five games and had to be at least partially satisfied with a three-way tie for first place when the regular season closed?

When it flew to Austin, Texas for a season-ending three-game series with the Texas Longhorns, the fast-moving Mountaineers sported a 15-6 conference record. Kansas State was second in the standings at 13-8 record and Texas was still alive with a 12-9 mark.

Texas cruised past WVU, winning a three-game series by scores of 12-2, 10-4 and 7-3. That gave both WVU and Texas 15-9 conference records. Kansas State dropped two of its last three games, but also finished with a 15-9 record.

Texas was seeded No. 1 in the Big 12 tournament with Kansas State seeded No. 2. West Virginia had the No. 3 seed when it played No. 6 Texas Tech in the tournament’s opening round. The Red Raiders won that important game, 6-3. Shoved into the loser’s bracket, the Mountaineers fell again, this time a 3-2 verdict to Oklahoma State.

Traxel

It became a five-game losing skid to end the regular and conference tournament season.

Even with the dismal tail-end to that part of the season, the Mountaineers still had achieved a 39-18 overall record and had made believers of the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

On Monday, that committee made the Mountaineers an at-large selection in the Kentucky Regional. Kentucky was given the overall No. 12-seed in the national tournament and could play the role of one of the 16 Regional hosts from across the country.

In Lexington, West Virginia was given a No. 2 seed in the four-team event and will play No. 3 seed Indiana in the first round. Kentucky will face Ball State (Indiana), the No. 4 seed in the other first round game today. The double elimination event is scheduled to run from June 2-5.

Should the Mountaineers wade through the Kentucky Regional and win it, they would advance to the so-called Super Regional round and face the winner of the LSU Regional in a best two-of-three series.

Reed

What can WVU do to get back to winning baseball games?

Its starting pitching must show marked improvement from what it produced in being bounced by Texas. Losing three straight times and being outscored 29-9 in those games is reason enough for real concern. And then the offensive lineup wasn’t chasing any team’s pitchers, either.

Double elimination tournaments call for reliable pitching and lots of innings from your starting pitchers.

West Virginia has been able to win with pitchers Blaine Traxel (7-5 record, 3.79 ERA, 14 starts, 5-3 record, .245 batting average against and 99.2 innings) and Ben Hampton (5-3 record, 4.17 ERA, .272 batting average against and 82 innings).

David Hagaman appeared in 21 games, but with only one start. He had a 3.06 ERA and opponents batted only .179 against him.

Hampton

Grant Siegel (4-2 with a 5.18 ERA) and Carlson Reed (23 appearances, seven saves, 1.50 ERA, 57 strikeouts in only 36 innings and a .215 batting average against) are likely to do some pitching in the Regional. The overall team ERA was 4.35.

The bottom of the Mountaineer batting order will have to do much more than it did in the last five games.

Sam White (.256), Dayne Leonard (.256), Grant Hussey (.262), Logan Sauve (.269) and Braden Barry must contribute in some ways. Barry did hit .294 and had eight home runs, scoring 55 runs while driving in 44 runs and stealing 22 bases in only 24 attempts.

JJ Wetherholt was the Big 12 Player of the Year and Coach Randy Mazey was the league Coach of the Year.

Wetherholt, Landon Wallace, Tevin Tucker, and Caleb McNeely have accomplished the most offensively. Wetherholt batted .443 and the other three hit over .300.

Hagaman

It appears West Virginia is going to get scored against in significant numbers no matter the Regional opponent.

But will its offense keep it in games where the opposition is on a tear?

If any game is close, West Virginia has to win it.

Kentucky is at home, but none of the others can really compare with the best teams here in the tournament from the potent SEC.

West Virginia will be overlooked. Can it use that underdog status to surprise teams with its overall team speed and grit?