MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU’s three-game skid in Austin continues to have its impact.
The Mountaineers have dropped significantly in the national polls, and now their status as a projected regional host is in jeopardy.
Last week, D1 Baseball had Randy Mazey’s ball club as a No. 7 national seed. In the website’s updated field of 64, the Mountaineers have lost their top 16 status. They are now projected to join Virginia, Pennsylvania and Iowa in the Charlottesville Regional.
The Cavaliers sit at 44-11 overall and take a nine-game winning streak into the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship. After sweeping Georgia Tech to end the regular season, the two teams will meet in the first round of the conference tournament on Wednesday. UVA is the Coastal Division champion.
Following its sweep of WVU, Texas has now emerged as a regional host, along with fellow regular season co-champion Oklahoma State.
Loyola Marymount, Dallas Baptist and Texas A&M are the other three teams currently in the Austin Regional. Oral Roberts, Oregon State and Grand Canyon are slotted in the Stillwater Regional.
Baseball America’s latest projection from Tuesday morning has West Virginia as the second-seed in the Stanford Regional hosted by the Cardinal who carry the No. 5 seed overall. UC Santa Barbara and San Jose State round out the Regional grouping.
In this scenario, the Mountaineers would be the only team in the four-team field that is not based in California. WVU has never played any of the three programs.
The Cardinal are 37-14 and went 9-1 in their final 10 games to secure the regular-season Pac-12 title and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. They won 23-of-30 conference games.
The top 16 national seeds in the national tournament host a regional, while the top eight seeds also host the Super Regionals, should they advance.
WVU hosted an NCAA Regional in 2019 but did not advance to the Super Regional round. It also reached the NCAA Tournament in 2017.
The Mountaineers are the No. 3 seed in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Championship and will face the No. 6 seed Texas Tech in the opening round Wednesday night.
