CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Twelve years to the day after he was announced as West Virginia’s baseball coach, Randy Mazey looked on as the Mountaineers conducted the irst June practice in program history Thursday afternoon inside North Carolina’s Boshamer Stadium, site of this weekend’s super regional series between the Mountaineers and Tar Heels.
“That was the vision 12 years ago,” Mazey said, “and it’s pretty cool because it’s something we’ve never done before.”
While it remains to be seen how the Mountaineers (36-22) handle the environment awaiting inside the venue they practiced at Thursday, West Virginia carried itself a loose and confident team while becoming more familiar with the Tar Heels’ home field.
As Mazey met with media members inside the UNC dugout after practice, a number of Mountaineers players surrounded their head coach to take pictures and/or videos of the scene. Mazey could only laugh, and at one point, he dumped out some of his water bottle in the direction of those players.
“This is out of control how much fun they’re having now,” Mazey said. “But this isn’t unusual for what these guys are like, because as much as they give it to me, I give it right back to them. I don’t think there’s a program out there that has more fun than the players at West Virginia baseball. I really believe that.”
West Virginia is well aware it’s an underdog against UNC, the No. 4 national seed, and seems to relish that label in its quest for the program’s first College World Series berth.
North Carolina (45-14) is 35-3 at home and possess one of college baseball’s top offenses, which has produced nearly nine runs per game to go with 109 home runs over those 59 contests.
“We have to stay loose. Obviously people aren’t probably picking us to win and that’s what we want,” said WVU shortstop JJ Wetherholt. “We want to be the underdogs, so we can play more free. We’re going to have a lot of fans screaming at us. We can use that energy hopefully to our advantage and just play and have fun.
“We had a ton of fun in Tucson and I’m pretty sure a bunch of fans there thought that I was crazy and some of my teammates were crazy. We should do that again this week. That’s the goal, and if things don’t work out right away, we should keep doing it, have fun and be ourselves out there.”
The Mountaineers got off to a strong start last Friday in the Tucson Regional with a 4-1 victory against Dallas Baptist thanks in large part to the left arm of pitcher Derek Clark. Clark logged his fourth complete game and fifth nine-inning start in that win.
He’ll get the nod again Friday in the super regional series opener as the Mountaineers look to limit the Tar Heels.
The 5-foot-9 southpaw previously starred at Division II Northwood University before becoming a Mountaineer ahead of his senior season. He has been West Virginia’s ace for the majority of the 2024 campaign and enters with an 8-2 record, 2.82 ERA and 83 strikeouts over 89 1/3 innings.
“It’s been a blast being a part of this team. We knew going into the tournament that we were going to be the underdogs pretty much every game we played in,” Clark said. “We embraced that. We’re going to have to have as much fun as we can, go out there and compete and whatever happens, happens.”
Clark’s lone relief appearance this season came two nights after the complete game against DBU when he recorded the last two outs of a 10-6 regional-clinching win against Grand Canyon. He’s averaged better than seven innings in 12 starters, and the Mountaineers will certainly look for him to go deep into Friday’s matchup.
“I’m just going to take it like any other game. Go out there and try to do my thing and throw strikes and compete,” Clark said. “They have a pretty elite lineup. Try to keep them off balance, pitch to my strengths and hopefully things go well.”
Both offenses will see a left-hander to start as UNC announced junior Shea Sprague as its starting pitcher for Game 1.
Over 15 appearances and 13 starts, Sprague is 3-1 with a 3.76 ERA. He has logged 69 1/3 innings and struck out 58 against 16 base-on-balls.
Sprague last pitched June 1 in the Tar Heels’ 6-2 win against LSU. He threw 4 1/3 innings in that game.
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West Virginia’s Grant Hussey was a participant in Thursday’s practice and looked to be without limitation. He took batting practice and fielded ground balls at his normal position of first base.
Hussey played in all three Mountaineer wins during the Tucson Regional, but left Sunday’s game against GCU after appearing to injure his hamstring while running the bases in the fifth inning.
Hussey dealt with a minor injury earlier this season and has played in 55 games and started 52.
“Cloudy to partly cloudy,” Mazey said to describe Hussey’s status. “This time of the year, guys do things that they don’t normally do. So, if you’re a player in this program that’s never played in a super regional and something is bothering you, you worry about that when the game’s over. We’re just hanging on, baby.”
Hussey is a .246 hitter with 12 home runs and 37 RBI this season. A native of Parkersburg, he became West Virginia’s all-time leader in home runs earlier this year and has 37 for his career over three seasons.