Photo by: Big 12 Conference
Mazey's 6th WVU Club His Strongest on Paper
February 13, 2018 11:10 AM | Baseball
Road Games to Start Season
(Power 5 schools only)| School | Games | |
|---|---|---|
 |
Notre Dame | 19 |
 |
Purdue | 19 |
 |
Utah | 19 |
 |
Ohio State | 17 |
 |
West Virginia | 15 |
 |
Pitt | 15 |
This is his sixth team at West Virginia, and quite possibly his best.
He has 23 lettermen returning, including 12 of 17 pitchers from last year's 36-win team to go with a couple of recruiting classes considered among the strongest in school history.
He's also got a man in former Tennessee coach Dave Serrano sitting next to him in the dugout who knows how to handle a pitching staff. When you've got a guy on your coaching staff with his own Wikipedia page, you know you are doing something right, and Mazey has definitely been doing a lot of things right lately.
Last year, Mazey finally experienced the fruits of his labor by getting the Mountaineers back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996, a span of 21 seasons.
That entails the tail end of the Bill Clinton administration, two runs with Bush 43, two more with Barack Obama, and one wild year with Donald Trump since the last time the Flying WV was seen at an NCAA baseball regional.
Mazey has made incremental improvement each year he has been at West Virginia, from making it a competitive program in the Big 12, to becoming a factor in the league title hunt, to now evolving into a club with which to be reckoned on the national level.
For the first time in a very long time, there is even a little preseason national buzz going on with the Mountaineer baseball program, and a strong early start on the road could help build even more momentum when it begins playing games at Monongalia County Ballpark a month from now.
In the meantime, trips to Jacksonville, Florida, Conway, South Carolina, Bowling Green, Kentucky, Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Cookeville, Tennessee will test this team's mettle before it finally begins conference play in Norman, Oklahoma, on Friday, March 23.
The 23-game home slate this year features league games against Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Texas and Baylor, with a non-conference portion that includes intriguing matchups against Pitt, UNLV, Virginia Tech and Marshall.
It's a schedule Mazey believes is conducive to success if his guys can take care of business.
"Coaches are always trying to figure out how to finagle their schedule to benefit their RPI, and I think I've got it pretty well figured out," Mazey joked.
He's got it figured out, in part, because the first 15 to 20 games each year are already figured out for him. Those are always on the road because of the climate challenges the Mountaineers have playing in Morgantown in late February and early March.
Consequently, that means three games in Jacksonville, neutral-site games against VCU and Illinois in Conway, a road game at Coastal Carolina, a three-game series at Western Kentucky, a three-game series at Middle Tennessee State and a two-game set at Tennessee Tech before the fellas finally get to play in their home park.
It's very challenging, of course, but once you get on the other side of it, the rewards could be plentiful.
"You've got to play your first 20 on the road," Mazey said. "You get more (RPI) points for winning games on the road, and on top of that it toughens your team up. As long as you can avoid the fatigue that comes with that - and I think we did that last year - then that really benefits us."
Two years ago, West Virginia didn't manage its travel schedule very well and that ultimately cost the Mountaineers an NCAA Tournament bid when they failed to take care of business in the midweek with losses to Canisius, Penn State and Pitt.
WVU is in a unique situation because it changes time zones each time it plays a conference series, which is not that big of a deal when they play on the weekend, but it is a pretty big deal when the team returns to Morgantown afterward.
Sometimes, that means players are not getting home until 3 or 4 a.m. on Monday morning and then must turn around and go to class later that day, which sometimes makes those Tuesday afternoon games dicey.
"Sometimes you are writing nine zombies into the lineup," Mazey admitted.
But just as he once became an expert in the RPI, Mazey said he has now become an authority in "sleep deprivation" and "long-distance travel" as well.
He's even got a fancy term for it - "fatigue science" - which in lay terms means figuring out a way to get his guys some more sleep. Some of that involves players wearing wrist bands to monitor their sleeping habits.
"We'll give them some practice time off to keep their legs under them," he said. "Two years ago, that's what cost us a regional, and this year I think we've figured it out."
As for his pitchers, Mazey is content to let Serrano figure them out.
"I think they are buying into what he's teaching," Mazey said. "I think he's got their attention, whether that's because of his background or his pedigree or the fact that he's won national championships, been on Team USA or that he's coached 34 pitchers, I think, that have gone on to pitch in the big leagues.
"You kind of get instant buy-in, even before they meet him."
Mazey has yet to reveal his starting rotation for this weekend, but he did indicate a lot of pitchers are going to toe the rubber against Jacksonville.
Their pitches will be closely monitored, however, just like their sleep.
"We're going to go slow with them," he said. "They are going to be on about a 75-pitch limit on opening weekend. A lot of people don't do that, but we do that. I think that's helped us later in the year. We've always played pretty well in the conference tournament because we always go a little easy on our guys early in the year."
It's a similar deal with his lineup.
He's still in the process of making decisions on who will play where and what order they will appear on the lineup card that he walks out to home plate on Friday night.
Third base, unoccupied now with the unexpected transfer of Cole Austin to Arizona State, will likely be manned by either catcher Ivan Gonzalez or touted Fayetteville, Georgia, freshman Tyler Doanes.
That's one obvious question mark.
Another is at first base replacing senior Jackson Cramer, who delivered many clutch hits throughout his outstanding four-year career.
One other uncertainty is left field where Kyle Davis manned the spot for three seasons before being taken in last year's Major League Draft in the 15th round.
However, the guys filling those positions have plenty of experience, such as sophomores Marques Inman (injured last season) or Kevin Brophy at first, and junior Braden Zarbnisky or sophomore T.J. Lake in left.
The pitching staff, although still missing right-handed power arm Michael Grove this year as he continues his recovery from Tommy John surgery, returns almost intact.And, Serrano will also have some lefthanders at his disposal this season, something last year's team was without. That means late-inning, lefty-lefty matchups are back in play for the Mountaineers this season.
"It actually made my job easier because I couldn't play the matchup game," Mazey pointed out. "It was like coaching in the National League without a DH - you don't worry about it. But this year we can play that game a little bit so that's one of the roles we are trying to fill right now."
Mazey said he sees much more speed and athleticism from top to bottom in his lineup.
He's got guys fast enough to get from first to third on slow rollers to the outfield; he's got power in the middle of his lineup and he's got a strong defense, particularly up the middle with shortstop Jimmy Galusky, second baseman Kyle Gray and fleet center fielder Brandon White returning.
Therefore, on paper, this is clearly Mazey's strongest team.
But will it be good enough to crack the national rankings (and remain there)? Will it be good enough to challenge for a Big 12 title and possibly make it to a Super Regional for the first time in school history?
Mazey believes a lot of that could be determined by the team's No. 1 guy on the mound, whoever that turns out to be.
"I think we've got a pretty complete team," he said. "I think we've got some guys that can run the ball out of the yard if we need to. We're faster than we were last year. We have more depth on the mound; we just need someone to step up and win 10 games for us this year.
"If you are going to have a great season somebody has to be that guy. We have some guys who are capable, we just don't know who they are yet," he concluded.
The discovery process begins this Friday night at 6 p.m. at John Sessions Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.
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