Switalski

“What might have been.” “What could have happened.” “Just one play or one hit and we’d be moving on to a possible berth in the College World Series.”

After losing to a three-run, last-inning rally to NCAA Super Regional host the University of North Carolina, West Virginia’s Mountaineers dropped a wrenching, 2-1, game to the Tar Heels and were eliminated from what was once a 64-team baseball tournament whose survivor will become the much-chronicled 2024 national champion.

The story lines abounded as West Virginia faced the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Tar Heels in one of 16 Super Regionals the NCAA stages.

West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey had announced his retirement was coming when the season was completed. North Carolina was attempting to qualify for its second consecutive trip to the eight-team College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

Chumley

No Mountaineer team had ever won a Regional Tournament that gave it a berth in a Super Regional — only one step removed from the College World Series.

It was a best two-of-three series. It was played in Chapel Hill, home of the Tar Heels.

West Virginia had just won a four-team tournament that took place in Tucson, Ariz. and hosted by the University of Arizona. UNC won a similar tournament it hosted at the same time.

In last Friday’s Super Regional opener, the Mountaineers trusted their hopes to smallish left-handed pitcher Derek Clark, a near-brilliant winner the week before in the Arizona Regional where he mastered Dallas Baptist.

In a pressurized, back-and-forth struggle, North Carolina’s three-run, last inning rally carried it to an 8-6 win in the series opener.

Clark

The lead changed hands. The pressure remained entrenched in both dugouts throughout the taut-nerved evening.

At first, UNC had a 4-2 lead against the efforts of the unflappable Clark. West Virginia’s two runs had come on Kyle West’s solo home run and his RBI single.

Reed Chumley homered with a man aboard for WVU in the sixth to bring a 4-4 tie and ratchet the pressure just a bit more.

When West homered again, the celebratory Mountaineers were in front, 6-4.

The homestanding Tar Heels still had a finishing kick in their arsenal. Colby Wilkerson homered off Clark . . . and with Matt Poston getting out after out in his three innings of relief against WVU, the game reached the last of the ninth with Clark’s pitch count only escalating.

Lumsden

When Luke Stevenson led off the ninth with his home run, the game became tied again at 6-6.

The next batter reached first safely, Clark was replaced by Aidan Major, who fanned the first man he faced.

Vance Honeycutt, UNC’s career leader in home runs, crashed a two-run shot that created a wild scene near home plate as the Tar Heels celebrated an improbable 8-6 victory.

The diminutive Clark had thrown 144 pitches.

In the short series’ second game, UNC’s Honeycutt gave his side a quick 1-0 lead when he had a lead-off home run against left-hander Tyler Switalski.

Major

Switalski and North Carolina pitcher Jason Decaro then took control of the game for the most part. Three singles against Switalski in the third lifted Carolina’s lead to 2-0.

West drove in Chumley in the seventh with what would be the Mountaineers’ only run.

Switalski would go 6.1 innings, allowing five hits, only one walk and fanning four. Decaro pitched an effective 6.1 innings while allowing just two hits and walking two. He fanned five.

It was still just a 2-1 lead for the Tar Heels going to the bottom of the ninth. West Virginia loaded the bases with two outs for ninth-place hitter Ben Lumsden.

Lumsden grounded out to first . . . and UNC had qualified for the College World Series, which will open today in Omaha.

Gray

WVU ‘s season-closing record was 36-24. UNC carries a 47-14 record with it to Omaha.

No West Virginia team had ever climbed so far or as high in the national tournament.

Switalski finished with a 5-3 record for the 2024 season.

This year’s associate head coach Steve Sabins, a long-time Mazey assistant, will become West Viginia’s head coach next season.