No. 42 was not one of the eight West Virginia players who made one of the Big 12’s all-conference teams Tuesday — not even honorable mention, which I think you made — and that doesn’t make a lot of sense.

The Mountaineers have won 14 of 17 games and need to make some noise in the Big 12 tournament this week to get to the NCAA regional for the first time since 1996. Fourth-place WVU opens the event with a 10 a.m. game today in Oklahoma City against fifth-place Oklahoma, which took two of three against the Mountaineers in the regular season, but the Sooners were also there when WVU turned around its seasons.

Engineering that turn? Ray Guerrini, No. 42, the catcher who’s started the past 17 games and is batting .345 since then … which is also his average for Big 12 play, when he also had the conference’s best on-base percentage.

“He’s been maybe the most important guy on the team,” WVU coach Randy Mazey said. “For him to be hitting .300 now, he’s always been a great defensive guy, but the way the offensive numbers have come along just turned him into a great player.

“Those all-conference selections, we’re not really allowed to do anything other than submit statistics. The people who vote don’t have any idea about his leadership ability, how he handles pitchers, what he does for our young guys or how good he is off the field. The only thing that comes through in an email, all that the other coaches know about, is the Ray Guerrini on the stat sheet.”

In fairness to the league’s coaches, Guerrini had a good season when other catchers had very good seasons. And batting average speaks the loudest. Guerrini went into the final regular-season series at Texas Tech batting .286. He raised is average 14 points that weekend, but voting information (ie, a stat line) was sent out before that weekend.

Never mind how he ranked among the Big 12 catchers, though.

Guerrini batted .205 last season and was, as many catchers are, part of a soft platoon earlier this season with freshman Ivan Vera. When the Mountaineers got hot, Mazey decided to play Vera at third and Guerrini behind the plate every game. Guerrini’s been beyond solid. Vera leads the team with a .407 average. Vera-Jackson Cramer-Guerrini is a formidable middle of the batting order.

And Guerrini’s doing this while playing all the games and all the innings — including two doubleheaders — as the knee-bending, pitch-blocking catcher who, by the way, has also been hit by 11 pitches this season. It adds up, but Guerrini’s going to be back there for as far and as long as WVU goes this weekend and this season.

“You get a lot of rest, a lot of naps and a lot of ice, but this is the time of year you want to be playing,” Guerrini said. “It gets me excited and ready to go just knowing we get to go out there and give ourselves a chance to get a NCAA regional or a Big 12 championship. That’s what it’s all about right there, and that’s enough energy and enough motivation for me.”

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