The West Virginia baseball team has been picked to finish sixth in the 2023 Big 12 Conference Preseason Baseball Poll, the league announced on Thursday.
The Mountaineers tallied 28 points in the poll, which was voted on by the conference’s nine head coaches, after narrowly missing a postseason bid in 2022.
Each of the top five teams in the 2023 poll qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season.
TCU, the defending Big 12 regular-season champion, was selected to repeat with 61 points, including five first-place votes.
Oklahoma State was just behind with 59 points and the remaining four first-place votes.
This was the fourth time in Big 12 history that two or fewer points in the voting separated the top two finishers.
TCU won the 2022 Big 12 baseball regular season title, becoming the first team to go back-to-back since 2016-17.
The Horned Frogs posted a 16-8 record to win the title outright for their fourth trophy since 2015.
Following that duo, Texas Tech was picked to finish third with 48 points while Texas (43) and defending Big 12 Tournament champion and national runner-up Oklahoma (33) rounded out the league’s top five.
Behind the Mountaineers, Kansas State (17), Kansas (16), and Baylor (14) completed the poll.
West Virginia has finished higher than its preseason ranking six times in 10 seasons in the Big 12 and is coming off a 33-22 season, including a 14-10 mark in Big 12 play, the best conference record for the Mountaineers since joining the league in 2013.
The Mountaineers open the 2023 campaign on Friday, Feb. 17, on the road against Georgia Southern, an NCAA regional host in 2022.
The squad’s home opener is slated for Wednesday, March 8, against Canisius at Wagener Field at Monongalia County Ballpark.
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