West Virginia baseball may have cost themselves the opportunity to host an NCAA Regional with a late-season slump, but they'll still have the opportunity to play for the ultimate prize in the postseason.
On Monday, the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed, and the Mountaineers will be headed south to participate in the Clemson, South Carolina regional, hosted by Clemson, which was one of 16 teams that drew a No. 1-seed and opportunity to host a regional -- the Tigers are the 11th-overall seed in the tournament. The Mountaineers drew a 2-seed in the region.
Clemson and West Virginia will be joined by 3-seed Kentucky and 4-seed USC Upstate. The regional rounds are set to start on Friday, May 30th, and will run through Monday, May 2nd. The regionals consist of a four-team, double-elimination bracket -- at the Clemson Regional, the 2-seed Mountaineers will open play against 3-seed Kentucky, while 1-seed Clemson and 4-seed USC Upstate will clash in an in-state postseason battle.
West Virginia and Kentucky will face off on Friday, May 30th at Noon EST, in a contest that will be televised on ESPNU. Later that evening, USC Upstate and Clemson will play at 6 PM EST, which will be broadcast on the ACC Network. The results of those two games will determine future pairing and the schedule for the remainder of the regional.
The Mountaineers enter having lost seven of their last nine games during the regular season in Big 12 Tournament after suffering just seven losses in the first 46 games of the season. The Mountaineers will need to find a solution to their untimely slump in they want to close their historic season on a high note, as the time has come where a pair of errant losses can bring their season to an end.