College baseball fans compare the NCAA Regionals to the opening weekend of March Madness. Tons of games, many of them with exciting finishes, and there tends to be memorable upsets as well. This year, the NCAA baseball regionals delivered in a Big Way. And for WVU – it has been historic.
The Mountaineers are heading to Omaha for the College World Series for the first time ever. They will face off against the winner of the Troy vs Little Rock Super Regional. The other side of WVU’s CWS bracket will have the winners of Southern Cal vs UNC, and Ole Miss vs Auburn.
In the NCAA regional brackets, more than one 4-seed advanced for the first time ever.
The top 2 overall seeds were eliminated. Nearly half of the regions came down to a winner- take-all game 7. There were plenty of upsets, amazing comebacks, extra inning games, and walk-off winners.
And arguably the best region of all? Morgantown. Many pundits picked Wake Forest, with its hard-throwing pitching staff, and dangerous offense. Most of the others picked WVU, while very few chose Kentucky. The Wildcats, in fact, were often mentioned as a team that should not have made it to the tournament. Kentucky had struggled with injuries during the year, but when fully healthy, they were a tourney caliber team. They showed up to Morgantown healthy and with a big chip on their shoulder.
They managed to upset Wake Forest in the region opener, and WVU cruised over a scrappy Binghamton squad. That set up the first WVU vs Kentucky showdown, which was a wild affair that saw Kentucky win 11-9. Teams that win their first two games typically go on to win the region, because they will face a team that has played an extra game, and it is still double elimination. WVU faced off in the losers bracket against that touted Wake Forest team, but the Mountaineers got a sterling pitching effort from Dawson Montesa, and took home a 10-5 win.
That meant WVU would play Kentucky just a couple hours after that one, and they had to beat Kentucky twice.
It did not start out well for WVU, as they made some uncharacteristic errors, and had some erratic pitching, until Ben McDougal came out of the bullpen. He had seen limited action this year, with his longest stint at just 2 innings, and he had thrown just over 6 innings all year.
He stepped up, however, with a great 5 inning stint to slow down the Kentucky offense, holding them scoreless in 4 of those innings. Still, WVU trailed 9-6 heading into the ninth. But then things went crazy: the Mountaineers scored 5 runs in the ninth, capped by Paul Schoenfeld’s 2-run home run as Kendrick Field erupted. McDougal pitched a scoreless ninth, and WVU had its own 11-9 win.
That set up one last game to determine who would win the region. Both teams had pretty much used up their pitching staffs, so both had to call upon pitchers to come in with less rest than usual, and see how long they could hold on. It looked good for the Mountaineers for a while: they held a 5-1 lead heading into the eighth inning. But this time it was Kentucky who came up with late inning magic, and tied it up at 5 apiece. It went into extra innings, and in the bottom of the tenth, Armani Guzman – who had the game winning hit last year against Kentucky – once again came up with a game winner. WVU won 6-5, to advance to the Super Regionals for the third straight year.
As an added bonus, WVU’s region was paired with overall top seed UCLA’s region. But since the Bruins were eliminated, that meant WVU hosted a Super Regional for the first time ever. They faced a good Cal Poly team, but the Mountaineers, and an electric atmosphere in Morgantown were simply too much for the Mustangs. WVU won both games in dominating fashion, scoring double digit runs both times.
Also, while the results were fantastic, WVU got all kinds of great publicity. The crowds were fantastic, and national media (even those who don’t focus on college baseball) took note of how good the regionals and super regionals were in general, and Morgantown got a lot of love in particular.
The College World Series starts Friday June 12, and continues through June 21 or 22 (depending on whether or not there is a third game in the best 2-out of-3 championship). All games will be televised on ESPN, and you can check online for the exact schedule.
The baseball team isn’t the only team advancing in their postseason, either. The Track & Field team had three athletes advance from the Eastern Regional to the NCAA Championships.
They are Joy Naukot (10000m run), Mercy Kinyanjui (3000m steeplechase), and Annishka McDonald (high jump).
The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships start June 10 in Eugene, Oregon. All sessions will be televised by ESPN2. The 1000m run will be on Thursday (June 11), at 10:56pm.
The high jump is scheduled for Saturday (June 13) at 7:30pm. The steeplechase is a two round event, with semifinals at 8:38pm on Thursday, and finals at 8:24pm on Saturday.
Finally, a big congratulations to the Class AA Softball Champion Petersburg High School team.
