Texas trip offers path to WVU league title

With one win in the Texas series, the Mountaineers will clinch at least a share of the Big 12 regular season title. Two would give it the outright regular season championship, as would one win and an Oklahoma State loss.

Another series victory, though, would probably give WVU a hosting slot for the NCAA Regionals, but that's looking a bit too far down the path, at least in terms of the benefits a successful weekend might accrue.

The Mountaineers can be encouraged by the fact that they have battled the Longhorns quite well in their time in the league. They are 16-13 overall against UT, and own five series wins, beginning with their first two seasons in the Big 12, when they recorded a pair of two-games-to-one decisions in 2013 and 2014. Two of those series wins have come at Disch-Falk Field in Austin.

Texas comes into the final set with a 35-18 record, including a 12-9 league mark, and needs a sweep of the Mountaineers to climb past them in the league race. That's not out of the question, as the Horns own a home series sweep over Texas Tech earlier in the year, and also put together a 16-game winning streak in March, with 14 of those victories coming at home.

Since then, though, it's been a bit of an up and down campaign, with 15 wins against 11 losses over the past five weeks. There's no question, though, that the Horns have enough offensive firepower to support a pitching staff that leads the Big 12 in ERA.

First pitch for Thursday's opening game is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.

SEAMS AND BARRELS

Texas’ Dylan Campbell has hit safely in a school-record 30 consecutive games. He has raised his average by more than 100 points during the streak, and is now batting .331.

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WVU's JJ Wetherholt is leading the Division I batting title race at .466, and is looking to become the first Big 12 player to win the title since 1999. He is aiming to become the first Power 5 player to hit over .450 in a season since Florida State’s Buster Posey (.463) in 2008.

Florida Atlantic's Nolan Schanuel is second nationally with a .452 average.

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Texas has hit 74 home runs this season while WVU has 72, but the key to that match-up might lie 60 feet, six inches away. The Mountaineers pitching staff has yielded 52 home runs this season, while Texas has given up only 29.