GETTING THE BALL — West Virginia pitcher Derek Clark sidearms to the plate during a game this season. Clark starts today’s regional opener for the Mountaineers. – Kevin Kinder/BlueGoldNews.com
TUSCON, Ariz. — After surviving a season filled with unimaginable injuries that disrupted any momentum it could possibly have built, West Virginia’s third-seeded baseball team has reached its defining moment as it opens play in the Tucson Regional of the NCAA Tournament with a 3 p.m. Friday game against No. 2 Dallas Baptist to be shown on ESPN2.
Enduring the injuries and the shock of learning their coach, Randy Mazey, would retire at the end of this season has tested them each and every day of the year and they met it head on with character and an unwavering resiliency.
But now it’s playoff baseball in a double elimination format. There is no more wiggle room, no more looking ahead until star JJ Wetherholt comes back from 24 games missed with a hamstring pull. There are no more midweek games or unranked opponents.
There is no room for error … or walks or hanging curveballs.
This is when each player tests not only his ability but his makeup.
“Some guys live for moments like this. Some guys don’t like moments like this. To win regionals, you have to have a team filled with guys who like moments like this,” Mazey said, offering in part a statement of fact and a challenge to his team.
“This is why you come to West Virginia, to watch selection shows, to play in regionals. If you can’t enjoy this moment, you shouldn’t be playing baseball,” Mazey said moments after the Mountaineers learned their NCAA fate. “The thing our guys know is no matter how they perform, I’m going to love them all just the same. That gives them freedom to go out and perform and not put any pressure on themselves.
“This is something they can enjoy. This is something they will remember the rest of their lives, so they might as well enjoy it and make the best of it.”
Win or lose it is the beginning of the end of the Mazey Era at WVU. He was the right man for the big job of resuscitating what was a stagnant WVU program, of ushering it into a new conference in the Big 12 and into a new baseball facility that has proven forever that if you build it, they will come.
Record crowds, record seasons and a record smashing player in Wetherholt have combined to make anything possible, even with a two-and-through performance in the Big 12 Tournament now behind them.
As Mazey spoke about his situation heading into this, he was asked how Wetherholt will react to the same, it being a given that he will leave for the Major League Baseball draft on July 14.
Mazey opted to use that moment to offer up an interesting response.
“J.J. is only a junior, he’ll be back next year,” he said, tongue embedded firmly in his cheek.
Wetherholt, of course, is penciled in as a first-round selection, one mock draft having him headed for his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates with the ninth pick.
After fighting through a hamstring injury that reminded him of his vulnerability, Wetherholt would be insane to test the baseball gods again.
Wetherholt deftly sidestepped the question about this being the final page of the chapter of his days at WVU in his life story.
“I know what can be in the future, but I don’t really think about it too much,” Wetherholt said. “I’m just excited about playing with my guys.”
This is an encore performance at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson for Wetherholt the Mountaineers, having played there last year against Arizona on a trip West that included an exhibition meeting with the Arizona Diamondbacks, run by Mountaineer benefactor and alum Ken Kendricks, in Phoenix.
“JJ played very well in Arizona,” Mazey recalled.
The series against Arizona in 2023 screamed out to the world that Wetherholt was a special player as he went 7 for 13 with two home runs and three doubles.
“He did his thing,” Mazey said. “So, he’s going to be very comfortable there.”
Wetherholt is healthy now and while the box score of his last game in the Big 12 Tournament showed him with just one hit, he scorched the ball each time he hit in.
“If JJ had that game at Dallas Baptist, he’d have been 4 for 5 with 4 homers,” Mazey said, noting he was going against the wind in the Big 12 Tournament.
While it might have cost him the Big 12 Tournament, resting his best pitchers rather than forcing them to throw on short rest, he now has Derek Clark and Tyler Switalski ready for the NCAA Tournament. Clark was 7-2 with a 3.05 ERA and Switalski 3-2 with a 5.93 ERA.
The Mountaineers bring a 33-22 record into the tournament out of the tough Big 12 while Dallas Baptist, a small school with a giant killer reputation, is 44-13 out of Conference USA.
Top seeded Arizona, 36-21, faces No. 4 Grand Canyon, 34-23, at 9 p.m. on ESPN+ in Friday’s second game.