(Story by Taylor Kennedy)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The No. 8 seed West Virginia Mountaineers are less than 24 hours away from opening Big 12 Tournament play against No. 9 seed Kansas.
The Mountaineers and Jayhawks will be playing a single-elimination game. The winner will take on No. 1 seed Texas Longhorns. Mazey was a guest on the Tuesday night edition of MetroNews Citynet Statewide Sportsline.
.@CoachMazey joins @TonyCaridi, @BradHowe07, @HunterWvu88bgn to discuss the @WVUBaseball game tomorrow against the Kansas Jayhawks. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/4I2wmcPmJz
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) May 24, 2021
“If we can capture that game [Texas] one magic, we can capture the game one magic of Kansas State, the game three at Baylor, game one against Oklahoma, and game one against Oklahoma State. There has been some magic here and there,” Mazey said.
That “magic” will need to be released for postseason play. Different components from the game are needed to happen for WVU to walk away victorious.
“What needs to happen is Jackson Wolf needs to be standing 60-feet away from the hitter,” said Mazey. “That has been a pretty good sign. When that does not happen, the Mountaineers sluggers are going to have to roll the pole through the hole.
“We are going to have to get some good starting pitching to do anything special here.”
Pitching rotations are important during postseason play, but WVU is in a win-or-go-home scenario tomorrow afternoon.
“We did not announce our starting pitcher for Saturday’s game in Austin until we saw how the other games came out,” stated Mazey. “We were watching the Kansas-Texas Tech game. As soon as Texas Tech beat Kansas, we were no longer allowed to get out of the play-in game. We had to change our starting pitcher. We were going to start Carlson Reed, but when we knew we were in the play-in game, Wolf could not turn around on that short of rest so we figured we would go with Carlson.”
The Mountaineers have reached the Big 12 Tournament semifinals the last four seasons. WVU has been able to eclipse that mark by guys stepping up when their number is called. The situation may be different this year since the Mountaineers have to play their way into a double-elimination scenario.
“You cannot win the tournament if you do not win the first game,” noted Mazey. “You have to take the games one game at a time. When you get in a situation like this complete games are worth the waiting goals. Those can put stress on your relievers. We would have to win five or six games down here [Oklahoma City] to win the tournament. To do that, every Mountaineer that wears a uniform and pitches is going to have to pitch. You cannot save anybody. The guy that is not going to pitch for sure in tomorrow’s game is Wolf.
“It is a juggling act. I can juggle three balls but not four.”
West Virginia is 15-11 all-time against the Jayhawks, including winning the regular-season series 2-1. The Mountaineers are also 2-1 against KU in the Big 12 Tournament.
“We played good the last ten games, but so have they as well,” Mazey said on the challenges Kansas brings. “They won a big game at Texas Tech, which is not easy to do. They beat Kansas State in a series where we did the games before. We beat Texas in the first game of our series, and they beat Texas Tech in the first game of their series. We were laughing and said that it would be ironic if the two hottest teams played in the play-in game on Tuesday.
“They are playing just as good as anybody right now.”
This will be the first year the Big 12 experiments with the play-in game. The tournament would leave out the nine seed, and the field would only consist of the top eight teams in the league.
“I have been in favor of every team making the tournament every year, not just this year,” said Mazey on his thoughts on the play-in game. “This is a unique experience for the kids. To have a kid go through his college career and maybe not experience this would be a shame for what you would be giving up. It is not like we are in a league where the number nine team could not come down here and win games. Every team in the league is capable of winning.”
The Mountaineers have won six of their last eight games heading into conference tournament play.
Carlson Reed, a freshman left-handed pitcher from Marietta, Georgia, earns the start on the mound tomorrow afternoon. The first pitch is set for 7 p.m. EST.
Former Mountaineer Alek Manoah gets promoted to the big leagues
Former WVU pitcher Alek Manoah received the call of a lifetime. He will make his major league debut for the Toronto Blue Jays Wednesday evening against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
Manoah’s first appearance will likely be a bullpen game.
“As he was coming through his college career, we were trying to mold his attitude, competitiveness, and fire on the mound,” stated Mazey. “I kept telling him, ‘AK, you cannot scream at the other team’s hitters when you pitch against the Yankees in the big leagues one day. You cannot yell at [Giancarlo] Stanton to go sit down. It is not going to be acceptable. Every time something great happens right now, AK always tells me that he is glad that we had that talk.”
Manoah went 3-0 in his only starts with the Blue Jays triple-A team, Buffalo Bison. He recorded a 0.50 ERA striking out 27 and walking only three batters.
Manoah faced off against the Yankees during spring training. He pitched three perfect innings striking out seven down in a single game. He also struck out four before his seven strikeout performance.
Manoah was selected 11th overall in the 2019 MLB draft by the Blue Jays.