The West Virginia University Baseball team will take on Grand Canyon University in the second game of the Tucson NCAA regional on Saturday. A win would be a 2-0 start for Randy Mazey’s squad and put themselves in complete control of the bracket.
The matchup comes after a fairly dominant performance from the Mountaineers against the two-seed Dallas Baptist Patriots. Derek Clark put together one of his best outings of the season, pitching a complete game, only allowing one run, four hits and striking out eight.
Clark stated after the game, “Right when I woke up this morning, I knew I was going to be ready.” Ready he was, as Clark became the first WVU pitcher to throw a complete game in an NCAA tournament game since 1996.
In the game following West Virginia’s, it was the one-seed and regional host, Arizona falling to the four-seed Grand Canyon 9-4. Arizona was able to take a 3-2 lead in the second inning but the Antelopes used runs in the 6, 7, 8, and 9 inning to secure the win.
The matchup between WVU and GCU will be the first all-time meeting between the two schools on the diamond.
The projected starter for West Virginia is another left-handed pitcher, Tyler Switalski. During the course of the season, Switalski put up a 4-2 record and a 5.94 ERA. However, later in the season the lefty really found his stride, going 2-0 in his last three starts and was able to go 5 innings in each.
There currently is no projected GCU starter. That information will be released closer to game time. This season, however, the Antelopes finished with a 35-23 record and went 0-2 against Big 12 opponents, both to BYU.
The Mountaineers have reached an NCAA Regional Final a couple times in their history including the most recent in 2017, but they have yet to get over the hump and win one. A win over Grand Canyon would put West Virginia in the driver’s seat to do just that.
Should the Mountaineers pull off the win, they would move themselves into the championship game with an extra life in their pocket. They would have the advantage of needing to win one of the last two games to get the job done.
Losing would not be the end of the road for the Gold and Blue either. A loss would match them up with the winner of Arizona and Dallas Baptist. That game would be to head to the championship game where the Mountaineers would have to win two in a row.
First pitch against Grand Canyon is scheduled for Saturday, June 1, at 10:00 p.m. ET and can be watched on ESPN+.
