Ken Knutson isn’t expecting any love from the NCAA tournament selection committee come Monday.

That’s because the UW’s head baseball coach knows his team is on the outside looking in, thanks to two losses at Arizona and a non-conference record that leaves a lot to be desired.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the Huskies’ final series of the season against Washington State will be without meaning.

For one, slugger Kyle Conley has three games to break the all-time UW home-run record set by Ed Erickson, who hit 42. Conley is tied with Erickson on the list.

But perhaps most important, the Huskies have both a chance to spoil and gain the spoils, with a sweep of WSU possibly giving them sole possession of second place in the Pac-10 and knocking the Cougars out of NCAA tournament consideration.

“We’ve been in this position every year,” Knutson said. “At the end of the season, we got to have a big weekend to either be in or be considered. It’s going to be a battle. We’re going to be amped up, and they’re going to be goofy jerked-up because it’s new ground for them.”

New ground for the Cougars, who haven’t made an NCAA tournament appearance since 1990, something the Huskies did as recently as 2004.

Washington (25-27, 13-11 Pac-10) isn’t looking for a postseason bid per se, but is going to take this series one game at a time, Knutson said, and not worry too much about the results early on.

“We’ve got to try to win every inning and every pitch,” Knutson said. “We know what we have to do. We have to win the first game. It’s just one-game seasons now.”

That means trying to shake off the after-effects from two devastating losses to Arizona last weekend that reduced the Huskies’ postseason hopes to rubble.

The second game of the series against the Wildcats was especially disheartening because the Dawgs were ahead until the eighth inning, when Tyler Cheney, Ben Guidos and Brian Pearl combined to give up six runs and the game, 10-7.

“The game was there for us, and we’ve been very good in those situations,” Knutson said. “But it was a mess. It was a crucial time and place — just a devastating loss.”

Knutson hopes his team’s knowledge of the Cougars, and recent history of success against them, will be in the Huskies’ favor this weekend. The Dawgs are 10-2 against Washington State (28-23, 16-8 Pac-10) in the past five years, and Knutson is 31-12 against WSU in Pullman, Wash., in his 17-year career.

Even Conley acknowledged that playing against a similar squad last year and having success will be good for the Dawgs.

“We’ve just got to go do what we’ve been doing against those guys,” Conley said. “We saw pretty much their whole staff last year, and it’s going to be pretty much the same guys this year, so we’ll see who puts together a better game — us or them.”

Who puts together a better game could be the difference between postseason or not for both teams.

“Depending on how things go on Sunday — the final game — it’s going to be pretty heated,” Knutson said. “Playing to win the series, sweep them or not to get swept; there’s going to be a lot going on.”

Reach reporter Allen Wagner at sports@dailyuw.com.