COMMENTARY
Randy Mazey’s best hitter opted for “devastating” to describe Sunday’s near-miss in the Big 12 championship.
That label fits when a desperate team rolls through bracket play, ascends to the winner-take-all final, and then wipes out an 8-0 deficit to climb within reach of an NCAA automatic bid.
Yet beating TCU is never automatic, especially not in the case of West Virginia, which has dropped 11 straight games over three seasons against Mazey’s former program.
TCU, which didn’t need to win the tournament to advance, did so anyway by staging its own ninth-inning rally before hitting a 10th-inning homer. The improbable 11-10 victory means the Frogs will host a postseason regional, while West Virginia must appeal to the NCAA selection committee.
That’s where Mazey sounded his own horn of desperation.
“What we’ve done since April 24, in the last month and four to five days, has been incredible,” he said after Sunday’s loss in Oklahoma City. “If we’re not one of the top 50 teams in the nation, someone hasn’t been paying attention.”
Indeed, winning 17 of 21 games down the stretch sure bolsters the resume. Then again, the resume assembled before April 24 was in dire need of bolstering. WVU went 3-7 in a stretch that included eight home games. It dropped series to Furman (RPI No. 136) and Kansas State (No. 128).
Two weeks before that slump, Canisius (No. 197) swept two games at Monongalia County Ballpark by a combined score of 16-5.
West Virginia conveniently hopes the NCAA selection committee wasn’t paying attention then, during the low point of Mazey’s four-year tenure. Punchless, overmatched and erratic, the team left fans wondering not whether it could reach the NCAA tournament but whether it could reach the conference tournament (i.e., not finishing last).
Say this for the Mountaineers: The team that languished with a 19-18 record on April 23 had one hell of a finishing kick in reserve.
Flipping the switch on confidence and execution, they tore through the final 17 games of the regular season and kept tearing through the league tournament. That’s why Kyle Davis muttered “devastating” after West Virginia erased an 8-0 deficit in a flash against TCU only to give up a ninth-inning lead.
Considering how Davis attacked at-bats this week in OKC, matching a Big 12 tourney record with 14 RBIs, he deserves to keep swinging in a regional. Likewise, the pitching staff that compensated for injuries to two starters could be rewarded by playing on.
The metrics, however, aren’t promising. WVU owned a No. 62 RPI as of Sunday night, which is typically outside the at-large range (though Oregon earned a bid at No. 66 last season—and was widely scorned.) It should be noted the selection panel is no longer a slave to the RPI, which explains how the Ducks advanced last season while No. 24 North Carolina did not.
Also problematic for the Mountaineers was losing 11 games to teams outside the top-100 and a strength-of-schedule that ranks only 90th.
On the good side: West Virginia is one of only 31 teams with a plus-.500 record against the top 100 and at least 13 victories. Going 15-12 in the nation’s No. 3 RPI conference doesn’t hurt either.
“We deserve to get in,” Mazey said, “and if someone doesn’t vote us in, that is their fault not ours.”
FactCheck.org could puncture that comment, in light of those embarrassing Canisius losses and the revelation WVU isn’t even the highest-RPI bubble team in its own state (Marshall is 61st).
Truth is, it won’t be a travesty if Monday’s field of 64 omits the Mountaineers. Nor will the committee have played Power 5 favorites by including them. There’s a thin, almost indistinguishable margin between all these baseball bubble teams.
What is entirely distinguishable: Just how far West Virginia evolved during this fantastic, fortifying final month. That showed again Sunday when being down 8-0 wasn’t devastating at all.