Photo by: Jennifer Shephard
Mazey Seeking More Strikes From WVU Pitchers
April 23, 2018 12:50 PM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia is back above .500 at 19-18 following last weekend's Big 12 series win over Kansas State - its first of the season - but the Mountaineers are beginning to run out of opportunities to get even more wins.
With an RPI still in the low 30s, victories are what the Mountaineers need most right now.
West Virginia has 16 regular season games remaining on the schedule, 12 in Big 12 play against Texas, Kansas, TCU and Baylor, as well as four non-conference matchups against Marshall tomorrow, Maryland a week from Tuesday in Morgantown, Virginia Tech on May 9 in Morgantown and Marshall at Monongalia County Ballpark on May 15.
The Mountaineers are also looking to find a replacement game for the one lost against La Salle back on March 20. West Virginia has already filled in two lost dates against Niagara on April 3 (for Penn State) and against Canisius on April 18 (for Pitt).
"We've got to try and find a game somewhere," West Virginia coach Randy Mazey admitted following Sunday's 7-4 loss to Kansas State. "We need to play as many as we can if we're going to make a run. To make a run you've got to pile up wins and the only way you can pile up wins is to play games."
Mazey said he's hopeful of adding another game before the regular season concludes on May 19thagainst Baylor.
"At this point we don't have much of a choice," Mazey noted.
That is if he can figure out who he can get to come to Morgantown on short notice.
He's also trying to figure out a pitching staff that managed to take two out of three from last-place Kansas State last weekend despite walking 22 batters for the three-game series.
West Virginia pitchers are walking an average of 4 ½ batters per game, the highest walk rate of any Mazey WVU pitching staff. It's the highest free-pass average since 2012, when the Mountaineers walked 5.2 hitters per game during a 23-32 campaign in their final year in the Big East.
On Friday night, the offense came up with five runs in the seventh and eighth innings to overcome a 5-3 deficit and win 8-5. Saturday, Mazey used three different pitchers to blank the Wildcats, 6-0, with starter Kade Strowd getting the first two outs in the sixth before being lifted for Cody Wood.
Strowd, now tied with Shane Ennis for the staff lead with four wins, walked seven and threw 103 pitches before heading to the showers.
WVU issued eight free passes in all for the game.
Friday night pitchers B.J. Myers, Ennis and Sam Kessler also managed to work around a high number of base on balls (seven) by allowing just six hits.
The walks finally caught up to West Virginia on Sunday when Mazey wore a path from the dugout to the pitcher's mound, beginning in the fifth inning when he lifted starter Braden Zarbnisky after just 53 pitches and the game tied at one.
Seven more trips to the mound followed. His relievers walked six and gave up seven hits, which accounted for five runs, the most damage coming in the eighth when the Wildcats plated three runs to give them a commanding 7-1 lead.
"Changing pitchers is not an exact science," Mazey pointed out. "It's really easy to do after the damage has occurred. The trick is to try and do it before the damage occurs. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."
It's clear to Mazey that his pitchers are going to have to throw more strikes if West Virginia wants to get back into the Big 12 race or build a resume good enough to be considered for a second straight NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
"We walked too many guys," he explained. "We walked 22 guys this weekend and you can win an occasional game doing that, but in the long haul you're going to lose consistently if you put guys on base like that."
Mazey views Sunday's defeat as an opportunity lost.
"It's pretty expensive losing this game," he said. "We had a chance to jump back into the conference race and at the end of the season you look back at this game and that's probably one we should have won. But we're in a good place offensively; we're playing pretty well. We've got some guys pitching well, we just need more."
He will be looking for another strong midweek pitching performance on Tuesday night against Marshall like the ones he has gotten the last two times out from sophomore righthander Isaiah Kearns, who went five strong innings in a 12-1 win over Pitt on April 11 and followed that up with four solid innings in a 9-2 victory over Canisius last Wednesday afternoon.
Mazey views Tuesday's game against the 17-20 Thundering Herd as an important springboard into a key weekend home series against second-place Texas.
The Longhorns are one-half game behind league-leading Oklahoma State in the Big 12 standings at 11-4. Texas is ranked 19ththis week by Baseball America after taking two out of three from New Orleans.
Advance sales for Saturday's 4 p.m. game against the Longhorns are going very well with a crowd of more than 3,000 at Monongalia County Ballpark a possibility.
But first things first, starting with Marshall up next.
"There will be a lot of water cooler conversations coming up on Tuesday with all of the people in the state of West Virginia working together," Mazey said. "Some of them are Mountaineers and some of them graduated from there, so there is a lot of pride at stake around the state."
He's also looking forward to seeing his pitchers throw more strikes - and less balls.
With an RPI still in the low 30s, victories are what the Mountaineers need most right now.
West Virginia has 16 regular season games remaining on the schedule, 12 in Big 12 play against Texas, Kansas, TCU and Baylor, as well as four non-conference matchups against Marshall tomorrow, Maryland a week from Tuesday in Morgantown, Virginia Tech on May 9 in Morgantown and Marshall at Monongalia County Ballpark on May 15.
The Mountaineers are also looking to find a replacement game for the one lost against La Salle back on March 20. West Virginia has already filled in two lost dates against Niagara on April 3 (for Penn State) and against Canisius on April 18 (for Pitt).
"We've got to try and find a game somewhere," West Virginia coach Randy Mazey admitted following Sunday's 7-4 loss to Kansas State. "We need to play as many as we can if we're going to make a run. To make a run you've got to pile up wins and the only way you can pile up wins is to play games."
Mazey said he's hopeful of adding another game before the regular season concludes on May 19thagainst Baylor.
"At this point we don't have much of a choice," Mazey noted.
That is if he can figure out who he can get to come to Morgantown on short notice.
He's also trying to figure out a pitching staff that managed to take two out of three from last-place Kansas State last weekend despite walking 22 batters for the three-game series.
West Virginia pitchers are walking an average of 4 ½ batters per game, the highest walk rate of any Mazey WVU pitching staff. It's the highest free-pass average since 2012, when the Mountaineers walked 5.2 hitters per game during a 23-32 campaign in their final year in the Big East.
On Friday night, the offense came up with five runs in the seventh and eighth innings to overcome a 5-3 deficit and win 8-5. Saturday, Mazey used three different pitchers to blank the Wildcats, 6-0, with starter Kade Strowd getting the first two outs in the sixth before being lifted for Cody Wood.
Strowd, now tied with Shane Ennis for the staff lead with four wins, walked seven and threw 103 pitches before heading to the showers.
WVU issued eight free passes in all for the game.
Friday night pitchers B.J. Myers, Ennis and Sam Kessler also managed to work around a high number of base on balls (seven) by allowing just six hits.
The walks finally caught up to West Virginia on Sunday when Mazey wore a path from the dugout to the pitcher's mound, beginning in the fifth inning when he lifted starter Braden Zarbnisky after just 53 pitches and the game tied at one.
Seven more trips to the mound followed. His relievers walked six and gave up seven hits, which accounted for five runs, the most damage coming in the eighth when the Wildcats plated three runs to give them a commanding 7-1 lead.
"Changing pitchers is not an exact science," Mazey pointed out. "It's really easy to do after the damage has occurred. The trick is to try and do it before the damage occurs. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."
It's clear to Mazey that his pitchers are going to have to throw more strikes if West Virginia wants to get back into the Big 12 race or build a resume good enough to be considered for a second straight NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
"We walked too many guys," he explained. "We walked 22 guys this weekend and you can win an occasional game doing that, but in the long haul you're going to lose consistently if you put guys on base like that."
Mazey views Sunday's defeat as an opportunity lost.
"It's pretty expensive losing this game," he said. "We had a chance to jump back into the conference race and at the end of the season you look back at this game and that's probably one we should have won. But we're in a good place offensively; we're playing pretty well. We've got some guys pitching well, we just need more."
He will be looking for another strong midweek pitching performance on Tuesday night against Marshall like the ones he has gotten the last two times out from sophomore righthander Isaiah Kearns, who went five strong innings in a 12-1 win over Pitt on April 11 and followed that up with four solid innings in a 9-2 victory over Canisius last Wednesday afternoon.Mazey views Tuesday's game against the 17-20 Thundering Herd as an important springboard into a key weekend home series against second-place Texas.
The Longhorns are one-half game behind league-leading Oklahoma State in the Big 12 standings at 11-4. Texas is ranked 19ththis week by Baseball America after taking two out of three from New Orleans.
Advance sales for Saturday's 4 p.m. game against the Longhorns are going very well with a crowd of more than 3,000 at Monongalia County Ballpark a possibility.
But first things first, starting with Marshall up next.
"There will be a lot of water cooler conversations coming up on Tuesday with all of the people in the state of West Virginia working together," Mazey said. "Some of them are Mountaineers and some of them graduated from there, so there is a lot of pride at stake around the state."
He's also looking forward to seeing his pitchers throw more strikes - and less balls.
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP/OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP/OF
/ BaseballSteve Sabins | Feb. 16
Monday, February 16
Matthew Graveline | Feb. 16
Monday, February 16
Reese Bassinger | Feb. 9
Monday, February 09
Brodie Kresser | Feb. 9
Monday, February 09
