Contrary to what you might soon think, I was not struck in the head by a foul ball at a recent West Virginia baseball game.

But we are near the end of the month, and the Mountaineers are playing quite well. They’re a respectable amount of games above .500 with a friendly home series, a useful road non-conference game and a critical conference road series remaining. I’m sure I wouldn’t say they are on the NCAA’s bubble, but if they manage these last seven games properly — and they have not done that the past three seasons — and then earn some extra credit in the conference tournament, I mean, why not?

/listens to answers to the question “Why not?”

OK, OK, OK. Good points, all of them. That said, WVU played a pretty aggressive Tuesday game against Maryland with some coaching decisions that were not exactly in line with mid-week games. “We had to go all out to win this one,” manager Randy Mazey said.

Why?

Well, why not?

His team’s come a long way in three weeks, rising from the cusp of .500 to positioning itself to possibly be in position for an at-large bid. There’s a lot yet unwritten, and WVU has no fewer than nine games left, because the Big 12 tournament is double elimination. Figure the Mountaineers need to play 10 or 11 more games, depending on how the regular season ends, to really be in the thick of the conversation.

They’re 28-19 now. What if they finish, say, 36-22 and the RPI, which was up to No. 88 Wednesday and can go up more with wins against William & Mary (No. 119), Pitt (No. 51) and Texas Tech (No. 11), settles in the 50s?

WVU’s going for it, starting its best pitchers, Chad Donato and Ross Vance, in Friday’s doubleheader against the Tribe, and then, after a break Saturday for graduation, probably coming back Sunday with Connor Dotson, who did well Sunday against Texas.

The mid-week game that follows at Pitt is critical — and WVU cannot afford a rain out — and the Tuesday starter there has a big task in his mitt. It won’t be Michael Grove, the freshman from Wheeling who’s mowing down batters lately, including 13 in Tuesday’s win against Maryland. Mazey said he’ll use next week to rest Grove, who missed the Sunday start against Texas because of a sore arm, to make sure he’s ready to go for the Sunday game against the Red Raiders.

Of course, WVU could render all this speculative analysis moot by winning the conference tournament, but for now, the goal is just shy of that, and the Mountaineers are considering their path and precedent.

Mazey and his staff are looking at the possibilities and trying to figure out what makes them most likely to make the field with an at-large bid, something WVU hasn’t done since 1996. The coaches don’t talk to the players about it, because there’s no need to risk losing the momentum that started when the team was 19-18 just 19 days ago, and Mazey really doesn’t know much other than it’s not impossible.

“There’s always a chance,” he said. “They like to look at how you’ve done lately. You look back and there are always teams that are around that .500 mark at the halfway point and play really well down the stretch and find a way to get in. You never know.”

If WVU wins the Big 12 tournament later this month, it automatically qualifies for the event, but there are 33 at-large invitations. Fourteen of those bids last season went to teams with at least 20 losses.

Oregon was No. 62 in the RPI, the lowest ranking of those 14 teams. The Ducks were 37-23 with a 15-16 record against the RPI top 100. Clemson was invited with a 32-27 record, and the Tigers were No. 54 in the RPI and had a 20-22 record against the top 100.

Oregon had a seven-game winning streak and won 10 of 12 games to end the regular season, and that included two wins in the final series against No. 2 UCLA. Clemson won seven of eight at the end of the regular season, including a three-game sweep at No. 8 Florida State to end the schedule, and then beat No. 3 Louisville in the ACC tournament.

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