WVU baseball selected for tourney
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MORGANTOWN -- This time the NCAA’s baseball selection committee got it right and put West Virginia in the field for the tournament, which starts at 7 p.m. Friday.
A year ago the Mountaineers had a tournament resume but not a tournament spot.
This year they ignored the wheels coming off late as WVU was swept a three-game series at Texas and then wiped out in two games in the Big 12 Tournament rather than ignoring the work of the full season that produced 39 wins and a share of the Big 12 regular season title.
The Mountaineers landed maybe the best spot they could have hoped for, having to travel only to Lexington to face Indiana in a regional hosted by the University of Kentucky with Ball State its opponent.
Close to home, no menacing Top 10 team to deal with, it was the perfect placing, although coach Randy Mazey could not have cared on where they were playing.
"You know, it’s really hard to make a regional at West Virginia. I was guilty of telling people, I don’t care if they send us to Anchorage. We’re in the postseason, man. That’s a big deal at West Virginia. Don’t underemphasize just how big it is for the Mountaineers to get an at-large bid.
"Getting in the tournament is super, super difficult, good teams are getting left out. We had an unbelievable season and I’m really happy for the kids."
It’s his third regional and it is a fitting reward for bouncing back from last season’s snub — or the snub in his first year running team when they put on a late rush through the last three weeks of the season and reached the Big 12 Final, only to lose in extra innings to TCU.
Like he said, it’s hard to make a regional at West Virginia.
The team gathered at their clubhouse at Mon County Park to watch the selection show, seemingly secure in their spot, but not knowing just how the committee were taking the late spring swoon.
There was much chatter as the kids of coaches and players joined in the room, only to have the room go dead silent when the show began. You never can be sure, you know.
But it wasn’t long into the show that they erupted in cheers as their name was called.
"That show is a little bit different each time you watch it. Sometimes you don’t know if you’re in or not. Sometimes you’re super nervous. I kind of felt pretty good watching it this time. There was a lower stress level," Mazey said.
It sounded good, but actually he would admit he was doing a little acting at the moment.
"Full disclosure, I always find out the night before where we’re going and if we are in," Mazey admitted. "I didn’t do that this year. I wanted to find out along with everybody else."
It’s kind of a family tradition.
"Amanda and I didn’t want to know the sex of our children until they were born, so we’re that kind of people," Mazey said. "I always thought one of the greatest traditions was to be old style and run into the waiting room and they say ‘It’s a boy or it’s a girl.’"
Mazey did not feel that way last year and made sure he found out before the selection show and it was a good thing because the team, despite 33 wins and as consistent a season as was this year’s 39-win year, was left out of the field.
"We didn’t gather for the show," Mazey remembered.
Why watch reality TV when you know how it’s going to come out?
"I’ve been in that room when we’ve gathered and didn’t get in," he said.
And so Mazey told last year’s team the night before the Selection Show they had not made it.
"I told them to remember this feeling, man, how bad you feel right now will serve for you to play with a chip on your shoulder this year. I think we have done that. Do you realize what we’ve done this year?
"We won six of eight Big 12 series. We went on a roll where we swept TCU at home, you beat Oklahoma at home, you beat Texas Tech at home. This league is amazing."
The truth is, Mazey has done an amazing job building WVU into a national player, despite being a northern school, despite being an eastern school where even the head of the selection committee admitted there was a bias against northeastern schools.
It wasn’t easy to shed the image of old Hawley Field and get together a team that fit the sparkling new Mon County Stadium in a much better baseball league than the old Big East.
"Since we’ve been in this league, we’ve played great baseball. Now I think the fans and the community are jumping on board and will stay on board. We’ve had so much fun this year with the crowds and beer snakes and pretzels. That has been as much fun as you can have in a college baseball program," he said.
They had a superstar in second baseman JJ Wetherholt, the conference’s leading hitter and Player of the Year. They had a 10-game winning streak that included sweeping the Tournament champion TCU.
But now they have to deal with the effects of the five-game losing streak they bring into the tournament.
"We just set the reset button watching that show," Mazey said. "Mental toughness is defined as your ability to focus as the next thing that is in front of you, not something in the past. We have a mentally tough team. I have no doubt we have a mentally tough team."
And so they set out on their first mission, which is far less encompassing than you may think. It isn’t even beating Indiana in the opener. That’s something you think about as the first game goes on.
"People have asked me before, ‘How do you win a Regional?’ First, you get in a Regional. There’s teams out there who have shown you that it turns into a weekend series and if we get hot -- which we are capable of doing -- anybody can win any regional anywhere," Mazey said..
"When Duke came in here and won our regional in 2019, I think they had lost 7 out of their last 9 games. None of that matters at this point. What matters is the next 3 or 4 games. It matters way more than the last 3 or 4."