West Virginia’s protagonists of ping went to Tulsa for the Big 12 tournament feeling pretty good about themselves — and at this stage, believing is as important as being. After all, this is a team that won seven in a row and nine of 10 earlier in the season, but also lost six straight and eight out of 10. A promising finish amidst pressure at the end of the season seemed to suggest the Mountaineers had the right look at the right time.

Again, that’s important because it wasn’t easy getting there, and this week almost didn’t happen. Midweek games were brutal — we had a feeling this might be the case — and the schedule seemed like it might be a bully again.

Last season, WVU had to schedule two games light because of a secondary violation the previous season and then had two games rained out during the season. College teams can schedule 56. The penalty left the Mountaineers with a max capacity of 54. WVU only scheduled 52 and played 50. In the end, six (or four) games and a handful more wins might have pushed WVU closer to the NCAA tournament. Who knows?

The story was different this season: The Mountaineers were just trying to get into the Big 12 tournament, and they were again working shorthanded. They won on the road at then-No. 11 Oklahoma in the first game of a last-season three-game series. The final two games were washed out, and WVU was in a battle for a top-eight seed in the nine-team conference that only invites eight to the conference tournament. Suddenly, those two cancelations were sort of important. Wins were vital. Blanks were dangerous.

WVU had to win two out of three against offensive Texas Tech in the final series of the regular season to get into the top eight. The Mountaineers won the first two, and it was critical they avoid the all-or-nothing scenario on Senior Day. The pitching was especially good in those two games and an offense that totaled 15 runs the prior six games crossed the plate 14 times to take the first two against the Red Raiders.

So with three wins in four Big 12 games, WVU was feeling really good about itself once more as it readied for Tulsa.

“The fact we’ve beaten every team in the league, other than TCU, gives us a lot of confidence going into it,” Mazey said. “We know we can beat everybody, and it’s hard for one team to beat another team four times in one year. I like our chances. We’ve got just enough pitching, I think, to go down there and, if we pitch well enough, get though this thing. Obviously, we’re very capable offensively, and if we play like we did this weekend, who knows what can happen?”

Well, the Oklahoma State put a pin to that bubble Wednesday night and shut out the Mountaineers in a 3-0 win. The pitching was good — Chad Donato threw 79 strikes and struck out 10 in seven innings and 123 pitches — but the offense was iffy … again.

“That was a pretty good pitching matchup right there. Chad Donato pitched as well as he has since becoming a Mountaineer; that was fun to watch,” coach Randy Mazey said. “That is really exciting to see for our future and his. If he is able to do that, Chad is going to be able to win a lot of games for us.”

West Virginia had the leadoff hitter reach by way of single in each of the first three innings, but the stranded seven runners through four innings and was not able to get on the scoreboard.

The best chance came when Davis singled up the middle and senior third baseman Justin Fox doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs in the top of the first. A foul out followed by two fly outs stranded the runners.

“If we had counted the amount of times we touched third base instead of home I think we would have won,” Mazey said.” I do not think they (Oklahoma State) had someone on third base the entire night, at least not for any significant length of time. We had guys on third base the first four innings and could not score them. That was where the game was lost, the missed opportunities in the first four innings.”

It’s the third time the Mountaineers have been shut out, and each has happened since April 17. They left seven on base and grounded into a double play and face an elimination game at 12:30 p.m. today against Oklahoma, the No. 3 seed that lost to Kansas State. WVU figures to throw Ross Vance, and the offense can expect to see Oklahoma’s 6-foot-8 Alec Hansen, who leads the conference with 93 strikeouts but also has a pretty interesting WHIP. The Mountaineers wore Hansen down in a 6-5 win last month — hey, that followed a shutout! — and chased him after 82 pitches (49 balls) in 3.1 innings.