CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Randy Mazey briefly looked up and glanced over at his family standing in the rear of the media scrum that marked his final press conference as West Virginia’s baseball coach.
“You might be able to see my daughter Sierra back there is very upset,” Mazey said late Saturday night after the Mountaineers were eliminated from the super regionals after a 2-1 victory by No. 4 North Carolina at Boshamer Stadium. “She’s probably upset because she knows I’m going to be spending a lot more time with her.”
There will be no bigger hole to fill next season than Mazey’s presence in the Mountaineers’ dugout.
“I can’t begin to tell you how much coach Mazey means to me and my family and to college baseball,” North Carolina head coach Scott Forbes said. “He’s one of the better baseball minds I’ve ever been around. I’m thankful for him.”
And while WVU’s first-ever trip to the super regional round of the NCAA tournament was filled with heartache and frustration — UNC won both games by a combined three runs, including a walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth in Game 1 — it also laid out a type of blueprint for the program to follow.
That plan may be somewhat unique compared to some of the elite teams found in the ACC and the SEC that are traditional participants in the super regionals.
Mazey’s plan built a program around players who had something to prove, ones who maybe were under recruited or simply overlooked.
Once the transfer portal became an option, Mazey and his staff took to it like ducks to water, not only finding players who could fill open positions, but leaving no stone unturned in doing so.
“Everybody likes to blast the transfer portal and it’s the ruination of college baseball,” Mazey said after Friday’s loss against the Tar Heels, in which he was surrounded by WVU players Kyle West and Derek Clark, who both transferred to WVU from smaller schools this season. “These two were at Division II schools at this time last year. We got them both out of the transfer portal.”
He mixed and matched and created an us-against-you mentality within the walls of Kendrick Family Ballpark.
“I just really love the people of West Virginia. They’re blue collar and hard working,” Mazey said. “That’s how we built this program on playing with a chip on our shoulder and being the underdog. We were again (against North Carolina) and we thrive in that atmosphere.”
Those walls at Kendrick Family Ballpark will soon be expanding by 8,200 square feet, as construction of a multi-million dollar hitting and pitching facility is expected to be completed by the start of next season.
It is a sign of a higher commitment that WVU is poised to begin a run of competing with the North Carolinas, Wake Forests and other college baseball powers of the ACC and SEC.
Steve Sabins will be the first one charged to take that commitment and run with it, as he will replace Mazey as head coach next season.
He has served as the team’s recruiting coordinator the last seven years, the one who found diamonds in the rough like J.J. Wetherholt, who later became the 2023 Big 12 Player of the Year.
Sabins will now take over a program with expectations, courtesy of what WVU accomplished over Mazey’s 12 years with the school.
And while that era ended on a late humid night with the bases loaded in the ninth inning in North Carolina, Mazey’s parting words were to make it clear that this is just the beginning — not an end — for the WVU baseball program.
“The first time you play in a super regional, it’s hard to win,” Mazey said. “This is the natural progression of a program. The last 12 years — what we’ve accomplished and what we keep accomplishing — we keep doing better than what we ever did before.
“The next time you get to a super regional, win it. That’s something that’s never been done before. There’s plenty of room to improve this Mountaineer program and I feel good about the future.”
