GRANVILLE — In his postgame talk with his players, Randy Mazey spoke of history.
The Mountaineers created a bit of their own Saturday, in pulling off a three-game sweep of Kansas State with a 5-1 victory at Mon County Ballpark.
WVU (33-20, 14-10) won its 14th Big 12 game of the season, the most ever in school history.
Along the way, K-State (27-27, 8-16) became the second conference opponent to be swept by the Mountaineers — WVU swept Baylor in April — in one season, also a first.
“In 2017, when we got an at-large bid to a regional, it was something the program hadn’t done in a long long time,” Mazey said. “In 2019, when we hosted a regional, that’s the first time the program has ever done it in that format.
“This year, we won 14 games in the Big 12, and that’s the first time in the history of the program we’ve done that. The mark of a good program is you keep doing things you’ve never done before and you keep climbing the ladder.”
The bigger question: What does all of that history equate to in this college baseball season.
In a sort of weird twist, the Mountaineers may have picked the worst year to have one of their best seasons, in that the Big 12 was so top heavy that TCU, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas also won 14 or more league games.
“It’s been pretty unusual,” Mazey said. “Usually you have a couple of teams that run away with it, a couple of teams right around .500 and then a couple of teams right below it. You’ve got six teams over .500 right now and it’s a good league. You’d like to think six teams are worthy of playing in the postseason, because of that.”
Before WVU can think of getting an invite to its 14th NCAA tournament, the Big 12 tournament looms next week in Arlington, Texas.
The Mountaineers are the No. 6 seed in that tournament and will play third-seeded Oklahoma in the first round at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the home of the Texas Rangers.
Oklahoma (33-20, 15-9) finished its regular season by taking two-of-three against seventh-ranked Texas Tech and also took two-of-three against WVU last week.
The Sooners outscored the Mountaineers 40-17 in that series.
“We’ve got to look forward now and let this momentum carry us into postseason play,” said WVU outfielder Austin Davis, who blasted a run-scoring triple and scored twice in Saturday’s win. “This is our chance to go make a run for the tournament.”
Aidan Major, a freshman making just his second Big 12 weekend start, picked up his third win of the season. He allowed three hits and three walks over five innings. He struck out one and gave up just one run.
“I’ve got to throw my off-speed stuff for strikes early and establish I can do that,” Major said. “That was the key today. As the game went on, I was able to throw some good off-speed pitches for strikes, which made my fastball better. I got ahead early and was able to get outs with my fastball.”
Grant Hussey hit his 10th home run of the season in the eighth, an opposite-field shot that landed just over the left field bullpen that scored two runs.
Hussey, a freshman who starred at Parkersburg South, became the first WVU player since Paul McIntosh in 2019 to reach double figures in home runs in one season.
Dayne Leonard added two hits and WVU’s bullpen pitched four scoreless innings and allowed just two hits.
“It’s just really cool for a team of kids to be part of something that’s never been done before,” Mazey said. “Those opportunities are so few and far between and we’ve gotten them. We’re going to play this thing out pretty hard, I think.”
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