West Virginia baseball's future looked uncertain despite a historic season entering the NCAA Tournament.
The Mountaineers had secured a program record for wins in a season and captured their first outright Big 12 Baseball Championship, but had lost seven of their last nine games and bowed out early in the Big 12 Tournament -- facing a late-season slump at the worst possible time.
The Mountaineers had watched high hopes of a hosting an NCAA Regional disappear in May, and dreams of a second consecutive Super Regional appearance and perhaps even a trip to the College Word Series that had begun to seem realistic were quickly becoming less so.
But it took just two games and a little resilience from the Mountaineers to get things back on track, and now West Virginia is sitting in the driver's seat at the Clemson Regional and in strong position to advance once again to an NCAA Super Regional, where sixth-overall No. 1 seed LSU will likely await.
With the four-team, double-elimination format, the Mountaineers have set themselves up well by starting the weekend strong with two victories. They will now have to play the winner of a Kentucky-Clemson match-up that is set to take place tomorrow at Noon EST -- regardless of the winner, the Mountaineers will end up playing a team they've already defeated once.
The Mountaineers are also guaranteed to face a team playing the second game of a double-header, as the game is scheduled for 6 PM EST tomorrow evening regardless of WVU's opponent -- and the Mountaineers will be suiting up for their third game of the weekend, while either Clemson or LSU will have to play their fourth game of the weekend. And if the Tigers advance, they'll have to play West Virginia in their third game in 24 hours.
And once the Mountaineers get to that Sunday evening contest, they can secure a spot in the Super Regional round with a win, but they can afford a loss -- if the Mountaineers lose, their opponent will have to beat them one more time on Monday. Despite a slow finish in the regular season and Big 12 Tournament, West Virginia couldn't hope to be in a better position as of right now.