When the West Virginia Mountaineers hit their lowest point of this baseball season, utility player Armani Guzman was just getting started.
A blowout loss to Arizona in the Big 12 tournament semifinals sent regular-season champion West Virginia to its ninth loss in 13 games — a momentum-killing stretch at the worst possible time heading into the 64-team NCAA Division I tournament.
Nearly forgotten from that game were a pair of late singles by Guzman in a pinch-hitting role. First-year coach Steve Sabins noticed, promoting the sophomore to a starting spot for last weekend’s double-elimination regional round of the NCAA tourney.
It was the spark the Mountaineers sorely needed.
Batting last in the lineup, Guzman went 8-for-12 with six RBIs in three games and was named MVP of the Clemson Regional. The Mountaineers (44-14) won once against the host Tigers — the No. 11 national seed — and beat Kentucky twice in the four-team regional to advance to the second week of the NCAA tourney for the second consecutive season. Their best-of-three Baton Rouge Super Regional against No. 6 national seed LSU (46-15) starts Saturday, and the winner moves on to the eight-team College World Series that starts next week in Omaha, Nebraska.