MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia punched its ticket to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Monday.
The Mountaineers (39-18) earned the No. 2 seed in the Lexington Regional. WVU will play No. 3 seed Indiana on Friday.
Kentucky – the No. 12 overall seed in the tournament – is hosting a regional for the third time in program history. Ball State is the Regional’s No. 4 seed.
It is WVU’s 14th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and the third time head coach Randy Mazey has led his team to the postseason birth. Mazey broke a 21-year postseason drought for the Mountaineers with his first tournament appearance at WVU in 2017. He is seeking the program’s first ever Regional title.
The Mountaineers hosted a Regional in 2019, but they went 1-2 while Duke – the Regional’s No. 3 seed – advanced to the Super Regional. The Blue Devils won the Regional after losing eight-of-11 games leading up to NCAA Tournament play.
WVU is 0-2 against the Hoosiers since 2010, with Indiana winning their most recent matchup in 2013.
The Mountaineers have beaten Ball State twice in the last eight years, including their last game in 2017.
The last time Kentucky and WVU met was in 2010 with the Wildcats shutting out the Mountaineers 6-0.
Under Mazey, WVU has a 3-4 record in Regional play. The Mountaineers are 11-26 all-time in NCAA Regionals.