The methodology inside West Virginia’s dugout is normalcy. A player gets hurt, and that stinks, but there are many players on the roster, and those early-season tournaments and games prepare a manager for the times when he loses a DH batting .351 and a starting pitcher who handles Sundays.

WVU wins its first two Big 12 series of the season on the road, but who’s more at home on the road than the Mountaineers? Those series wins were against ranked Baylor and Oklahoma State, but didn’t WVU go 2-0 away from home against defending national champ Coastal Carolina?

Oh, there’s a big series this weekend? The No. 3-ranked team in the country, the team that took an 8-0 lead over WVU in the championship game of the Big 12 tournament last season and was relieved to escape with an 11-10 win in extra innings, is in town for three? Please hand the plate umpire your lineup cards, and let’s see what happens.

But let’s not dismiss this: This is a defining moment for WVU baseball. It’s the difference between the Mountaineers saying, “Let’s see how we fare against the best!” and “Let’s see who’s the best.” Go to Five Below. Throw down for some Big League Chew, and so help me if it’s original.

This ought to be good.

TCU is the best team in the Big 12. Randy Mazey, either purposefully or legitimately provocative, will take it a little farther than that. “This TCU team might be the best college baseball team I’ve ever seen assembled together from pitching to hitting to defense to speed to power. Teams like this don’t come along all the time.”

Aaaaaand gulp.

But that team, 10-3 away from home, is at Monongalia County Ballpark, where WVU is 6-2. The Mountaineers are not wobbling, but they’ve lost two in a row, the otherwise reliable bullpen gave in Tuesday and that whole Sunday starter thing is a big deal. But the Mountaineers are also acutely aware of what opportunity this occasion presents. At No. 14 in the RPI — five spots behind TCU, if you want meaningful numbers next to names — but without a postseason appearance since 1996, it is fair to call them contenders with a pretender’s history.

They can change that this weekend.

The Mountaineers have put themselves in a really, really good spot today. It can get worse. It can get better. It starts tonight.

They won 17 of their final 21 games last season and cut the RPI from No. 119 to 60. This team doesn’t heave nearly as much work to do to earn an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.

All Mazey will tell his team is to keep progressing and don’t risk regressing.

“We try not to make it part of the conversation,” he said. “We talk about the process being more important than the results. If you focus on the process, the results will come. We’re not going into any game thinking, ‘Well, if we don’t win today, it won’t affect our RPI.’ We’re going to try to win every game, and whatever happens happens.”