Penn State baseball wrapped up its regular season on Saturday against Xavier and learned of its path toward replicating their magical run in the Big Ten Tournament last season later in the day.

After the rest of the Big Ten finished conference play on Saturday night, the Nittany Lions officially clinched the No. 9 seed with a 15-15 conference record, placing second in a three-way tiebreaker between themselves, Nebraska, and Rutgers.

In the newly expanded Big Ten Tournament, Penn State will play in Pool D in the new round-robin format. As part of Pool D, Penn State will face two opponents, the No. 4 seed USC and No. 5 seed Washington, for a spot in the semifinal.

The Nittany Lions will open their run on Wednesday, May 21, at 3 p.m. EST against Washington for their first pool game at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, the venue of the Big Ten Tournament. They did not face the Huskies in the regular season, who went 29-26 overall and 17-13 in the Big Ten.

The blue and white’s second game will be held on Thursday, May 22, at 3 p.m. against USC. The Trojans came to Happy Valley in mid-April, taking two out of three against the Nittany Lions. USC went 34-20 in the regular season, 18-12 in Big Ten action.

While Penn State enters as the clear underdog of the group and will have to play on consecutive days, they avoided the conference’s big three of Iowa, Oregon, and UCLA, which stood head and shoulders above the rest of the Big Ten.

Should the Nittany Lions win Pool D, Penn State would face the winner of Pool A in the tournament’s semifinal at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 24. The Big Ten Championship will be played on Sunday, May 25 at 3 p.m. if Penn State makes it that far.