A Shot at Revenge? New Tournament Projection Puts Pitt in Morgantown Regional

A new NCAA Tournament projection was released Saturday morning by the staff at D1Baseball, and with their win over Arizona State on Friday night, West Virginia appears to be a lock to host a regional. The updated projection features some new teams in the regional, including the addition of Pitt.

D1Baseball's Projection

No. 1 West Virginia vs. No. 4 Holy Cross
No. 2 Coastal Carolina vs. No. 3 Pitt

The Mountaineers would love to get another crack at Pitt after that embarrassing performance earlier this season, where the Panthers handed them a 23-1 beatdown. Things got out of hand in a hurry in that one as Steve Sabins gave Bryson Thacker the start, who gave up five runs in just 1.1 innings pitched, and then the usual midweek starter, David Hagen, matched the five runs allowed but only managed to get two outs before he was yanked.

The score may have been ugly, but it was not an accurate representation of what WVU could do in a game against its archrival. Pitt didn't face any of West Virginia's top three pitchers, Maxx Yehl, Chansen Cole, and Ian Korn, considering they are weekend starters. Also, their top bullpen arms, Carson Estridge and Reese Bassinger, did not pitch in that one. Sabins had to manage the situation smartly, knowing that they had a big series at Cincinnati the following weekend and were going to be without Yehl.

“Tough loss. Been on both sides of that," Sabins said following that loss. "Over the course of the season, there’s usually a couple of blowouts both ways, so obviously not the result you want, but definitely been on both sides of those where you beat somebody by 20, you lose to somebody by 20."

With the way the Mountaineers have been playing, regardless of tonight's result against Kansas in the Big 12 championship, it would be hard to imagine they don't advance to the supers, especially since they will be a regional host.

Coastal Carolina would be a tough matchup in the winner's bracket, but you can bet your bottom dollar that if the Mountaineers square off against Pitt, things would go very differently this time around.

A regional in Morgantown is already going to be wild, but man, can you imagine if they actually put Pitt in their pod? Kendrick Family Ballpark would be a madhouse.

WVU will find out tomorrow night if they have secured a spot as a regional host. The rest of the bracket will be released on Monday.

Add us as a preferred source on Google