Mountaineers Play for Big 12 Title This Afternoon

Sunday, May 26

Oklahoma City

2:15 P.M.

West Virginia University

Oklahoma State

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Photo by: Big 12 Conference

May 26, 2019 12:40 PM | Baseball

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By: Charlie Healy

OKLAHOMA CITY – The No. 17-ranked and fourth-seeded West Virginia University baseball team will play for a Big 12 Conference title for the second time in four years in the championship game of the 2019 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship on Sunday, May 26, at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT, at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City.

The Mountaineers (36-19) advanced to Sunday's title game with a 2-0 victory over No. 7-ranked and top-seeded Texas Tech in the semifinal on Saturday night. WVU will face the winner of the second semifinal, between No. 3-seed Oklahoma State and No. 6-seed TCU, which was postponed to Sunday morning at 10 a.m. ET/9 a.m. CT, due to inclement weather in the area Saturday night following West Virginia's win.

West Virginia is making its second championship game appearance in four years after reaching the semifinals in each of the past four seasons. WVU's first Big 12 title game berth came in 2016, when the Mountaineers went 3-0 to reach the final before an 11-10 loss in 10 innings to TCU.

WVU will be playing for its 20th conference title in program history and first since 1996, when West Virginia won both the Big East regular-season and tournament championship. The Mountaineers have won five conference tournament titles in team history.

The Mountaineers won the season series against the Cowboys (34-18), from April 5-7 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, while they lost a home series to the Horned Frogs (32-25), from May 3-5. WVU is 2-3 all-time against OSU and 1-4 against TCU in the Big 12 Championship. Last season, West Virginia recorded an 8-5 win over Oklahoma State and suffered a pair of losses to TCU, 8-1 and 7-3.

The winner of Sunday's contest will earn an automatic berth in the 2019 NCAA Baseball Championship.

FOLLOWING ALONG
There are a number of ways to follow along with this week's action from Oklahoma City.

The game will be televised on FOX Sports Networks and on FOX Sports GO to subscribers. The game will be broadcast live on AT&T SportsNet's alternate channel on DirectTV channel 659-1 and Dish on 412-38. The main AT&T SportsNet channel will re-broadcast the game on Sunday at 6 p.m. A complete list of stations airing the game is available here.
Fans can listen to the games on the Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College on various affiliates throughout the state, while fans across the country can tune into the broadcast online at WVUsports.com/Watch and on the WVU Gameday and TuneIn Radio Apps. Along with the regular-season affiliates, WVBD-FM 100.7 in Beckley, WETZ-AM 1330 and FM 93.1 in New Martinsville and WKMM-FM 96.7 in Kingwood will carry Sunday's championship game.
Live stats can be found at Big12Sports.com.
Direct links to video and radio streams and live stats are available on the baseball schedule page on WVUsports.com.
Additional behind-the-scenes updates, news and notes can be found on social media by following and connecting with the team on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @WVUBaseball.

WEST VIRGINIA'S ROAD TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
West Virginia reached the championship game thanks a 12-8 victory over Kansas on May 22, a 5-1 win over No. 7 Texas Tech on May 23 and a two-game split in the semifinals against Texas Tech on May 25. WVU lost the semifinal opener, 10-3, to force a second game, which the Mountaineers won, 2-0.

WVU led 9-1 after three innings in the opener against KU, but the Jayhawks rallied to cut the deficit to two, at 9-7, in the fifth, and again to two at 10-8 in the top of the seventh. West Virginia came right back with two in the bottom of the seventh to put Kansas away. Junior center fielder Brandon White and sophomore designated hitter Paul McIntosh each had a career-best four RBIs, tied for the most by a Mountaineer at the Big 12 Championship. McIntosh had a team-high-tying three hits in the win, as every starter had at least one hit, six scored a run and four had multiple RBIs.
The Mountaineers advanced to their fourth consecutive semifinals with their first win over TTU. Junior right-hander Alek Manoah turned in another dominating start and held the top-seeded Red Raiders to one run on four hits with 10 strikeouts and a walk in 8.0 innings pitched. WVU scored two in the fourth, half an inning after Texas Tech took a 1-0 lead, and added two insurance runs in the eighth and one in the ninth. Senior right fielder Darius Hill and White each had a hit, an RBI and a run scored
Texas Tech won Saturday's first contest to force a winner-take-all second semifinal. WVU's six-game win streak was snapped, as the Mountaineers fell to 3-1 all-time against No. 1 seeds and 4-1 against Tech. West Virginia took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Texas Tech tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the first, and both teams added a run in the second. The Mountaineers made it 3-2, but the Red Raiders answered with four in the fifth and added two in the seventh and two in the eighth.
Freshmen right-handers Ryan Bergert and Zach Ottinger combined for a one-hit shutout in Saturday's nightcap. Bergert made his first career start and held TTU hitless into the fifth inning, and Ottinger did not allow a hit in 4.0 innings, as the duo combined to allow just three baserunners. White again led the offense with three of WVU's six hits and added a run scored and a fantastic inning-ending, run-saving catch in the fifth inning with two on and two outs.

ON DECK: NCAA SELECTION SHOW
The 2019 NCAA Championship Selection Show is set for Monday, May 27, at noon ET, and broadcast live on ESPNU. The Mountaineers are expected to earn their 13th NCAA berth and first since 2017. The 16 NCAA Regional hosts will be announced on Sunday, at 8:30 p.m., on NCAA.com, the NCAA social media platforms and on the ESPN Bottomline.

For more information on the Mountaineers, follow WVU Baseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.