GRANVILLE, W.Va. — Much of West Virginia’s success throughout the 2024 season has come within the friendly confines of Kendrick Family Ballpark.
Winners of nine straight at home and with a 15-5 record at its 10-year old venue, West Virginia seeks to continue its winning ways this weekend when it welcomes Kansas State for three games — the final home series of the season and coach Randy Mazey’s career.
Fresh off an 18-7 non-conference win Wednesday night over Penn State, Mazey is well aware of the importance of the Mountaineers’ penultimate conference series, but wants his team to remain squarely in the moment just as he attempts to do despite his career winding down.
“I feel like we need to get Kansas State out in the first inning on Friday,” Mazey said. “That’s what we think about. If you start thinking about what happens down the road, then you lose the first inning. You have to think about each moment as it comes and we’re not going to look ahead to that. It kind of is what it is. Kids get on social media, all these websites and everybody asks them questions, so they know where we are.”
The Mountaineers (29-18, 15-9 Big 12) enter in a three-way tie with Oklahoma State and Texas for second in the Big 12 and three games behind league leader Oklahoma.
Kansas State (28-19, 12-12) is in sole possession of seventh place, and while both teams are on track to qualify for the conference tournament, the outcome of this weekend’s games will weigh heavily on seeding and postseason implications.
As of Thursday, the Mountaineers are No. 37 in the RPI — one spot ahead of Kansas State.
“If we win a couple games, we’ll move up and you never know what can happen. You can’t ignore it, but you can’t focus on it either,” Mazey said.
West Virginia’s last home loss came March 30 against Oklahoma State, and when the Mountaineers defeated the Cowboys the next day, it marked the start of a lengthy home win streak. Although WVU has dropped five of its last six true road games, the Mountaineers have swept Central Florida and Baylor along with picking up non-conference wins over Pitt and the Nittany Lions while playing at home within the last month.
“A lot of it is the crowd. It’s a great atmosphere,” said shortstop JJ Wetherholt, whose fourth home run this season traveled 439 feet Wednesday. “Playing on the road has been really hard this year across the conference. You see upsets everywhere and every team has kind of had it rough. The conference is pretty competitive and home-field advantage is a real thing.
“That’s not an excuse, because we need to find ways to play better on the road, but it’s also a testament to the fans here and us playing really well in this environment. Something we can look on as a team is we have the fans here, but why can’t we have the same energy in our dugout and around our team on the road that we have here? It’s something we’ll work on and hopefully it’ll show up later in the year.”
Wetherholt was one of six Mountaineer to hit a home run Wednesday and the other five came across the first two innings as WVU built a 12-0 lead.
Brodie Kresser’s first-inning grand slam highlighted the early offense as the Mountaineers got plenty of production throughout their lineup while matching a season-high run total.
“We try to stick to our approach and not hit too many home runs [in batting practice], because in games then you’re going to change your approach and change your mechanics,” Kresser said. “We have some guys that are better pull side and we have some guys like JJ who’s going to focus on opposite gap. Same thing with me. I’m thinking opposite and right over the second baseman’s head. Then everything else comes together. It’s pretty cool to see.”
As West Virginia looks to build off its surplus of offensive success from the last outing, the Mountaineers will look to pitchers Hayden Cooper, Derek Clark and Tyler Switalski to provide quality starting pitching against KSU.
Clark has been the staff’s ace for a good portion of the season and has three complete games and four nine-inning outings among his nine starts, though he struggled in his most recent start at Cincinnati.
Switalski has been a bright spot of late with 16 strikeouts and four runs allowed over 11 1/3 innings in his last three appearances.
“The rotation we’re going to have the rotation this weekend was the rotation we were going to start the season with had Derek Clark not got injured,” Mazey said. “Cooper, Clark and Switalski was our original three. That can be a positive I guess. We thought going into the season that these were our three best guys that gave us a chance to win. That doesn’t mean you’re going to win. It means those guys are very capable.
“Somebody needs to be a hero going down the stretch. This time of year, you need heroes on offense and heroes on the mound, and usually it comes from somebody you’re not expecting. I tell the guys all the time, ‘Why can’t it be you?’ It can be anybody here and everybody is capable.’ It’s just the right people getting hot at the right time.”
This weekend marks the final home series for Mazey, and while Sunday is the Mountaineers’ last scheduled home game at present, they’re attempting to add a home game Tuesday against a non-league opponent. That would give Mazey one final contest at a venue West Virginia began playing it in 2015.
“We’re more than baseball players to him,” Wetherholt said, “so he’s more than a baseball coach to me.”