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Every weekend series has been important for No. 17 West Virginia (32-18) and that’s no different heading into the team’s final regular season series against George Washington.

While West Virginia’s opponent doesn’t look all that intriguing on paper, this weekend’s three-game series is a critical one, especially if the Mountaineers have any hope of hosting an NCAA regional following next week’s Big 12 Tournament in Oklahoma City.

“I’d hate to really overstate the obvious on this one, but this weekend has just become the biggest weekend of the season for us,” head coach Randy Mazey said. “We’re in a position where we think we have a chance to potentially host a regional.”

Ahead of the team’s series matchup against TCU during the first weekend of May, the Mountaineers were projected by many to be regional hosts come NCAA Tournament time.

West Virginia had won five straight Big 12 weekend series at that time and were ranked No. 15 in the RPI, according to D1Baseball.com. The Mountaineers also found themselves ranked nationally for the third consecutive week.

Sixteen teams are selected each postseason to host a regional and the top eight teams of those 16 are national seeds.

A series loss to TCU led to West Virginia dropping to No. 21 in the RPI and its regional hosting hopes took a hit.

The Mountaineers would’ve suffered another drop in the RPI had the Horned Frogs swept them during that series but one swing of the bat during the series finale between the two teams at Monongalia County Ballpark prevented that from happening.

Senior outfielder Darius Hill completed a West Virginia comeback win with a two-out, two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to help the Mountaineers avoid the sweep with a 6-5 victory over TCU.

West Virginia has now won five out of its last six games. This includes the comeback win over TCU, a series win against Kansas State on the road and a victory over rival Pitt during the Backyard Brawl Tuesday at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

Throughout most of this season, West Virginia has been led by stellar starting pitching most notably from ace Alek Manoah (7-3, 1.89 ERA) and midweek starter Nick Snyder (8-1, 1.95 ERA) and for the most part, the team’s bats have struggled to produce consistently, ranking just 243rd in the country in batting average and 184th in scoring, averaging 5.5 runs per game.

But in West Virginia’s last six games combined, the Mountaineers have outscored their opponents, 41-23, and averaged close to seven runs per game.

According to Mazey, that walk-off homer from Hill was a turning point for the team’s offense here late in the season.

“That may go down as one of the biggest hits in the history of (Monongalia) County Ballpark at this point,” Mazey said. “Sometimes it just takes one swing of the bat not just to get you going but get the whole team going and I really think that changed our offense when we came back and won that game.”

George Washington, a team that ranks 32nd nationally in batting average, 28th in scoring (averaging 7.3 runs per game) and 15th in hits, enters the matchup with a 30-22 overall record but ranks just 217th in the RPI.

With George Washington’s RPI in the 200s, a loss in this series or series loss in general would drop West Virginia’s RPI significantly (which currently stands at No. 18) and would further hurt its case, if not, eliminate its chances for hosting a regional.

According to WarrenNolan.com, a win over George Washington during Thursday night's series opener would give West Virginia four RPI points, but a loss would lose them 53 RPI points.

At this point, it looks as if West Virginia will have to win these final three regular season games and make a deep run during next week’s Big 12 Tournament to put itself in the best position to host a regional, but regardless, there’s something for the Mountaineers to play for this weekend and room for improvement.

“If we get on the bus tonight and feel like the season’s over and we’ve accomplished what we set out to do, any team on your schedule can sneak up and beat you,” Mazey said. “We can’t start throwing parties and feeling good about ourselves just yet. We got a lot of work left to do this season.”

Series Schedule (All games at Monongalia County Ballpark):

Game 1 - Thursday @ 6:30 p.m. ET

Game 2 - Friday @ 6:30 p.m. ET

Game 3 - Saturday @ 2 p.m. ET (Senior Day)

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