Everything WVU Needs to Happen Friday Night in the Big 12 Race

West Virginia could use a little help while also continuing to take care of business.

WVU Athletics Communications

Game one of the final regular season series went to the Mountaineers on Thursday night as Ian Korn and Carson Estridge combined for a shutout, marking the team's 13th of the season. The win, of course, keeps them alive for the Big 12 title with just two days remaining, and while they need to keep handling their business, they need to get some help, too.

West Virginia received zero help last night as Kansas, Arizona State, and UCF all won.

The Sun Devils' result, however, doesn't matter since WVU won. The best they can do is finish with the same record as WVU in league play, but they don't hold the tiebreaker since the Mountaineers took two of three from them earlier this season.

UCF can't win the league or even a share of it since Kansas won last night, but they can leapfrog the Mountaineers with a pair of wins and two WVU losses. Really, West Virginia is just hoping for BYU to find a way to win at least one of the next two against Kansas to give them a chance to defend their title.

After last night's results, here's a look at where things stand and what's on the line tonight.

Updated Big 12 standings

Kansas 21-7 (-)
West Virginia 20-8 (1)
Arizona State 18-10 (3)
UCF 18-10 (3)
Cincinnati 16-12 (5)
Oklahoma State 16-12 (5)
TCU 16-12 (5)
BYU 13-15 (8)
Utah 12-16 (9)
Baylor 12-16 (9)
Kansas State 10-18 (11)
Texas Tech 9-19 (12)
Arizona 9-19 (12)
Houston 6-22 (15)

What can happen on Friday night

West Virginia left hander Maxx Yehl | WVU Athletics

Chasing first place: Winning the Big 12 title is still a possibility for WVU and will continue to be as long as they win. If Kansas drops game two to BYU and the Mountaineers win tonight, WVU will control its own destiny in the series finale against TCU on Saturday. The Cougars fell behind Kansas early last night, rallied to tie things up at six apiece, only to fall 9-6. If West Virginia loses tonight and Kansas wins, then the Jayhawks will win the conference outright. Should WVU and Kansas produce the same result on Friday, it will come down to what happens on Saturday.

Could clinch top two seed in Big 12 tournament: With last night's win, the Mountaineers secured a higher finish than Arizona State. Even if WVU drops the next two and Arizona State wins its next two, they will get the higher seed because of the head-to-head. If WVU wins OR UCF loses to Kansas State, then West Virginia will finish no worse than second in the Big 12 standings.