Late in Sunday's win against Grand Canyon, West Virginia shortstop JJ Wetherholt could be seen pounding his chest following a play which included a slide and throw across the diamond to record an out.

"We had a ton of fun in Tucson. I’m pretty sure a bunch of those fans that were there thought I was crazy and some of our teammates were crazy and we should do that again this week," Wetherholt said. "That’s the goal and if things don’t work out right away, we should keep doing it, just be ourselves and have fun out there."

Wetherholt and the Mountaineers are embracing the underdog role, even more so as they turn the page to their first-ever Super Regional when they face No. 4 North Carolina on Friday.

The Mountaineers and Tar Heels are facing off, with the winner of the best-of-three series heading to the College World Series. Playing at home at Boshamer Stadium is a place UNC has had a ton of success this season, racking up a 35-3 home record this season.

"We know that they’re ranked higher than us. We weren’t ranked coming into the tournament, I don’t think anybody picked us to get out of Tucson. You can rally around that but for the most part we know that we’re better than people think we are so we can just kind of use that as motivation," Wetherholt said.

Wetherholt is the undoubted leader of the Mountaineers both on the field and off it.

Wetherholt said he recently watched one of the Planet of the Apes movies, leading to the inspiration for WVU's new celebration.

"I watched it and just liked the movie, so I just started being a gorilla at an intersquad. Just figured, going into Tucson, playing some good teams, teams that are ranked higher than us, picked more than us to win and so I was like, we played pretty good at intersquad, so how about we treat this like an inter squad, so I was just like a gorilla all weekend and it helped the guys stay loose," Wetherholt said.

WVU outfielder Sam White has caught on and said when Wetherholt made that play against GCU, he was celebrating just as hard, if not harder than Wetherholt.

For the Mountaineers though, their new celebration isn't just an accident. They're playing some of their best baseball at the perfect time, and they are trying to not only play for one another, but play for head coach Randy Mazey who is retiring after this season.

"Since I’ve been here, we’ve just kind of been making some new strides the past three years, which is unbelievable. It just really shows that Coach Mazey’s been building since he got here. He’s been building the program for this reason to get where we are today which is amazing," Wetherholt said.

Wetherholt would post a video on social media from one of the movies, talking about how when you are together, you are strong, and alone, you are weak.

"Obviously people aren’t probably picking us to win and that’s what we want. We want to be the underdogs so we can play more free. We’re going to have a lot of fans screaming at us and we can kind of use that energy hopefully use that energy to our advantage and just play and have fun," Wetherholt said.

White added this group is used to not being picked, and even with the stout competition in the other dugout, they still believe in one another.

"I definitely think we are the underdog. I don’t think anybody in the country other than West Virginia fans think we’re going to win this series. That’s something that we’re used to and me personally, I know that any team can beat any team on any given day," White said.

First pitch of Friday's game is set. for 6:00 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN.

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