West Virginia baseball is currently 16-12 and 5-4 in Big 12 play at just around the halfway point through the 2024 season.
With that though, they have landed just outside of D1Baseball’s midseason NCAA Tournament projections. D1Baseball released their Field of 64 projections on Wednesday and the Mountaineers are on the outside looking in.
St. John’s, Texas Tech, Boston College, and West Virginia, were the first four teams listed on the outside of D1Baseball’s projections. Seven other Big 12 teams were listed in the field, including, No. 1 UCF, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 2 Kansas State, No. 2 TCU, No. 3 Texas, and No. 3 Kansas.
West Virginia has as many Big 12 wins as Oklahoma State, but lost the series to the Cowboys this past weekend. The Mountaineers took a series against Oklahoma, and are set to face Kansas on the road this weekend. WVU also has a home series the next weekend against UCF, and then still have Kansas State and TCU on the schedule in the regular season.
WVU has been without two of their best hitters in JJ Wetherholt and Logan Sauve. Wetherholt is expected to return this weekend barring any setbacks, while Sauve had his first at-bat since March 2 this weekend. Sauve is hitting .310 on the season, which is third-best on the team, while he has 15 runs scored, 13 hits, three home runs, and nine RBIs, in 13 total games played.
Wetherholt has not appeared in a game for the Mountaineers since Feb. 19, dealing with a hamstring injury. Wetherholt was hitting .308 in his four games played, recording only 13 at-bats, and has three walks and three stolen bases as well. Wetherholt is the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, and one of the top prospects in this year’s upcoming MLB Draft.
WVU has gone 14-10 without Wetherholt in the lineup and is 8-8 without both Sauve and Wetherholt in the lineup.
The Mountaineers are back in action this Friday when they head to Lawrence to play a three-game series against Kansas. First pitch for Friday’s game is set for 7:00 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+.
