Photo by: Big 12 Conference
Big 12 Baseball Championship Notebook
May 24, 2019 11:30 AM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Do yourself a favor and go to West Virginia's baseball twitter account and flip through the feed until you reach the highlights from last night's 5-1 victory over seventh-ranked Texas Tech in Oklahoma City.
Watch them.
Specifically, watch junior centerfielder Brandon White's two amazing catches, the first one diving on his left shoulder after a dead sprint and then another diving one on a sinking liner in front of him.
Both of those plays would be exceptional for Major Leaguers, as was his perfect throw to Kevin Brophy at third base to nab Texas Tech's speedy Gabe Holt when Ivan Gonzalez's throw trying to get Holt out at second base sailed into center field.
One reporter at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City asked White afterward if that was a typical game for him.
Actually, it was. The increasing number of fans who have been coming out to watch Randy Mazey's 17th-ranked Mountaineer baseball team at Monongalia County Ballpark lately have seen it before.
His coach has seen it the most.
"The catches Brandon White makes in center field are ridiculous," Mazey said. "He's been doing it for three years. He's a human highlight film and aside from that, it changed the game. It took a run off the board, the one he made over his head, and the one he makes in front of him, if he doesn't make that one it's Gabe Holt you're putting on the bases. That guy changes the game on the bases."
Speaking of human highlight films, the guy Mazey had on the mound Thursday night also added to his impressive season highlight reel.
Junior Alek Manoah, a projected top-10 pick in this year's Major League Draft coming up one week from Monday, solidified that status with another gem on Thursday night.
Red Raider coach Tim Tadlock called Manoah's four-hit, 15-strikeout, complete game shutout against his team in Morgantown earlier this year one of the best pitching performances he's ever seen, right up there with the no-hitter Max Scherzer threw against Texas Tech when he was pitching for Missouri in 2005.
Manoah thought Thursday night's performance might have been slightly better because he repeated it against a very good hitting team. Those Red Raiders were amped up to face him.
"To be able to put up double-digit strikeouts against a team like that twice (he had 10) it's kind of hard to do," Manoah admitted. "I know they were coming out aggressively. I studied a little bit of (shortstop) Josh Jung's interview yesterday, and I heard him say they didn't want to get 0-2, so I was ready to bring the smoke to them, too."
Mazey has been involved with a lot of good pitchers over the last 30 years in college baseball, including big leaguers Jake Arrieta and Andrew Cashner when Mazey was TCU's pitching coach, but he says Manoah's total package might be a little bit better at the same points in their college careers.
"Alek Manoah is arguably the best one I've had with the stuff that he has, the velocity that he has. He has three pitches that he can throw for strikes at really any time, and throw on top of that the competitive ness, the fire, the desire, commitment and the selflessness … you don't understand," Mazey explained. "That guy has every reason in the second half of the season to go out there and pitch for himself, because next Monday is draft day."
Or not play at all, as we are now seeing in college football with some players skipping bowl games to preserve their health for the pro football draft.
Manoah is certainly staring at life-changing money less than 10 days from now.
"For him to just go out there and throw his heart on the field for the Mountaineers, in spite of that, just shows you what kind of person he is that he's still fighting for the name on the front of the jersey and not the one on the back," Mazey pointed out. "That's just a testament to him."
Manoah threw 126 pitches in eight innings on Thursday night after throwing just 56 pitches seven days prior in an abbreviated start against George Washington. That's only 182 pitches in a span of 14 days, but Mazey was asked about Manoah's pitch count afterward.
"We train our guys to throw up to 130 pitches," he said. "I feel like if you are a starting pitcher in the Big 12, between our (athletic) trainer, our strength coach and the work we do, we feel like our guys can do that. He just happens to be as good at pitch 125 as he is at pitch one. When you get into the middle of the game his pride kicks in, his competitiveness kicks in, and he gets better."
Besides, Manoah is 6-feet-7, 250 pounds, and he's a tough dude to take out of games.
"I've never had a guy do that to that degree and get so much better throughout the game," Mazey said. "He came up to me in the fifth inning and he said 'we've got this. Their guys are getting tired, and I'm getting better.' He's telling his teammates that, and I think that just filters throughout the whole dugout."
West Virginia will now enjoy Friday off and will watch the two elimination games today – Texas Tech and Kansas at 4:15 EST and Baylor and TCU immediately following.
More Big 12 Tournament Notes …
* It took West Virginia a while, but the Mountaineers finally scored against Texas Tech's outstanding pitcher Caleb Killian, who blanked West Virginia 3-0 by giving up just two hits earlier this year.
WVU was able to scratch off a pair of runs in the fourth inning to take a 2-1 lead.
"I heard Darius Hill yell out of the dugout, 'It's taken us three years to finally score off this guy.' He's that good," Mazey said.
* Manoah was successfully able to work through traffic for most of the eight innings he pitched Thursday night. The leadoff batter reached base in five of the first six innings, but he managed to hold Texas Tech hitless in eight opportunities with runners in scoring position.
Manoah, by the way, has lowered his ERA to 1.85 following last night's performance. His 135 strikeouts are a single-season school record, and he can become West Virginia's first 10-game winner since Zac Cline in 2003 (12) with his next start in the NCAA Tournament.
* The win over seventh-ranked Texas Tech was also a big boost to West Virginia's RPI. The Mountaineers jumped three spots from 14 to 11, according to WarrenNolan.com. West Virginia this year has eight quadrant 1 victories, which might be as many as the program has had in its entire history BM – Before Mazey.
The Big 12 still has three teams in contention to host regionals this year – No. 7 Oklahoma State, No. 10 Texas Tech and No. 11 West Virginia. The Big 12 tournament winner is likely in line for one of the eight national seeds in the NCAA Tournament as well, if it happens to be one of those three teams.
* After more than 25 years of watching college baseball, I'm convinced that there are really two things that separate elite teams from good teams – power arms and great defense – and Randy Mazey has both this year at West Virginia.
He's got some terrific athletes chasing down balls out in the field and a bunch of pitchers who exceed 90 miles per hour on the radar gun.
The baseball staff has done a great job of capitalizing on the new ballpark and West Virginia's Big 12 affiliation recruiting in the Northeast, where there are a lot of tremendous baseball players looking for opportunities to play in one of the Power 5 conferences.
The two primary alternatives used to be the ACC and the SEC, but now with West Virginia, the Big 12 has entered the picture and Mazey has been able to take advantage of it.
We are seeing that with the guys he's running out there on a daily basis.
* Two weeks ago, West Virginia didn't have a single player hitting above .300 in its lineup, threatening a streak of 65 straight years with the Mountaineers having at least one .300 hitter. Well, Tyler Doanes is now batting .314 and Darius Hill has his average up to .312.
The team batting average has also risen about 20 points to .262 heading into Saturday morning's Big 12 semifinal game against either Texas Tech or Kansas.
* It's a shame more people in West Virginia couldn't watch last night's game because WVU fans in the Mountain State are really beginning to get behind Mazey's program. I believe Suddenlink in Charleston had the telecast, as well as DIRECTV subscribers, but that's it.
It will be the same deal on Saturday as well, so you will have to lock in Dan Zangrilli and Ernie Galusky on the radio on baseball's growing affiliate list. Three new affiliates were recently added to the postseason baseball lineup – WETZ-AM in New Martinsville, WKMM-FM in Kingwood and WVBD-FM in Beckley - bringing the total number of affiliates to 16.
There's plenty of room on the bandwagon for any late comers.
* And finally, count Mazey among the proponents of instant replay. Three reviews during yesterday's game went in his team's favor.
"I love replay. I love it as a fan when I come to the other games, too," he said. "When there is a call and those guys go underneath to look at the monitor I think it's kind of exciting waiting for them to come out and make the call.
"There's been games changed. The object is to get the calls right and whatever that takes I'm in favor of it."
And while it takes time to review plays, instant replay has cut down on the amount of time wasted when coaches come out to argue calls. That part of the game is becoming almost obsolete.
"I don't believe coaches should be allowed on the field at all, at any time," Mazey said. "I think that slows down the game tremendously. It's easier to get along with (umpires) because of replay and they're in favor of it, too, so we're kind of learning as we go."
Watch them.
Specifically, watch junior centerfielder Brandon White's two amazing catches, the first one diving on his left shoulder after a dead sprint and then another diving one on a sinking liner in front of him.Both of those plays would be exceptional for Major Leaguers, as was his perfect throw to Kevin Brophy at third base to nab Texas Tech's speedy Gabe Holt when Ivan Gonzalez's throw trying to get Holt out at second base sailed into center field.
One reporter at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City asked White afterward if that was a typical game for him.
Actually, it was. The increasing number of fans who have been coming out to watch Randy Mazey's 17th-ranked Mountaineer baseball team at Monongalia County Ballpark lately have seen it before.
His coach has seen it the most.
"The catches Brandon White makes in center field are ridiculous," Mazey said. "He's been doing it for three years. He's a human highlight film and aside from that, it changed the game. It took a run off the board, the one he made over his head, and the one he makes in front of him, if he doesn't make that one it's Gabe Holt you're putting on the bases. That guy changes the game on the bases."
Speaking of human highlight films, the guy Mazey had on the mound Thursday night also added to his impressive season highlight reel.
Junior Alek Manoah, a projected top-10 pick in this year's Major League Draft coming up one week from Monday, solidified that status with another gem on Thursday night.
Red Raider coach Tim Tadlock called Manoah's four-hit, 15-strikeout, complete game shutout against his team in Morgantown earlier this year one of the best pitching performances he's ever seen, right up there with the no-hitter Max Scherzer threw against Texas Tech when he was pitching for Missouri in 2005.
Manoah thought Thursday night's performance might have been slightly better because he repeated it against a very good hitting team. Those Red Raiders were amped up to face him.
"To be able to put up double-digit strikeouts against a team like that twice (he had 10) it's kind of hard to do," Manoah admitted. "I know they were coming out aggressively. I studied a little bit of (shortstop) Josh Jung's interview yesterday, and I heard him say they didn't want to get 0-2, so I was ready to bring the smoke to them, too."
Mazey has been involved with a lot of good pitchers over the last 30 years in college baseball, including big leaguers Jake Arrieta and Andrew Cashner when Mazey was TCU's pitching coach, but he says Manoah's total package might be a little bit better at the same points in their college careers.
"Alek Manoah is arguably the best one I've had with the stuff that he has, the velocity that he has. He has three pitches that he can throw for strikes at really any time, and throw on top of that the competitive ness, the fire, the desire, commitment and the selflessness … you don't understand," Mazey explained. "That guy has every reason in the second half of the season to go out there and pitch for himself, because next Monday is draft day."
Or not play at all, as we are now seeing in college football with some players skipping bowl games to preserve their health for the pro football draft.
Manoah is certainly staring at life-changing money less than 10 days from now.
"For him to just go out there and throw his heart on the field for the Mountaineers, in spite of that, just shows you what kind of person he is that he's still fighting for the name on the front of the jersey and not the one on the back," Mazey pointed out. "That's just a testament to him."
Manoah threw 126 pitches in eight innings on Thursday night after throwing just 56 pitches seven days prior in an abbreviated start against George Washington. That's only 182 pitches in a span of 14 days, but Mazey was asked about Manoah's pitch count afterward.
"We train our guys to throw up to 130 pitches," he said. "I feel like if you are a starting pitcher in the Big 12, between our (athletic) trainer, our strength coach and the work we do, we feel like our guys can do that. He just happens to be as good at pitch 125 as he is at pitch one. When you get into the middle of the game his pride kicks in, his competitiveness kicks in, and he gets better."
Besides, Manoah is 6-feet-7, 250 pounds, and he's a tough dude to take out of games.
"I've never had a guy do that to that degree and get so much better throughout the game," Mazey said. "He came up to me in the fifth inning and he said 'we've got this. Their guys are getting tired, and I'm getting better.' He's telling his teammates that, and I think that just filters throughout the whole dugout."
West Virginia will now enjoy Friday off and will watch the two elimination games today – Texas Tech and Kansas at 4:15 EST and Baylor and TCU immediately following.
More Big 12 Tournament Notes …
* It took West Virginia a while, but the Mountaineers finally scored against Texas Tech's outstanding pitcher Caleb Killian, who blanked West Virginia 3-0 by giving up just two hits earlier this year.
WVU was able to scratch off a pair of runs in the fourth inning to take a 2-1 lead.
"I heard Darius Hill yell out of the dugout, 'It's taken us three years to finally score off this guy.' He's that good," Mazey said.
* Manoah was successfully able to work through traffic for most of the eight innings he pitched Thursday night. The leadoff batter reached base in five of the first six innings, but he managed to hold Texas Tech hitless in eight opportunities with runners in scoring position.
Manoah, by the way, has lowered his ERA to 1.85 following last night's performance. His 135 strikeouts are a single-season school record, and he can become West Virginia's first 10-game winner since Zac Cline in 2003 (12) with his next start in the NCAA Tournament.
* The win over seventh-ranked Texas Tech was also a big boost to West Virginia's RPI. The Mountaineers jumped three spots from 14 to 11, according to WarrenNolan.com. West Virginia this year has eight quadrant 1 victories, which might be as many as the program has had in its entire history BM – Before Mazey.
The Big 12 still has three teams in contention to host regionals this year – No. 7 Oklahoma State, No. 10 Texas Tech and No. 11 West Virginia. The Big 12 tournament winner is likely in line for one of the eight national seeds in the NCAA Tournament as well, if it happens to be one of those three teams.
* After more than 25 years of watching college baseball, I'm convinced that there are really two things that separate elite teams from good teams – power arms and great defense – and Randy Mazey has both this year at West Virginia.
He's got some terrific athletes chasing down balls out in the field and a bunch of pitchers who exceed 90 miles per hour on the radar gun.
The baseball staff has done a great job of capitalizing on the new ballpark and West Virginia's Big 12 affiliation recruiting in the Northeast, where there are a lot of tremendous baseball players looking for opportunities to play in one of the Power 5 conferences.
The two primary alternatives used to be the ACC and the SEC, but now with West Virginia, the Big 12 has entered the picture and Mazey has been able to take advantage of it.
We are seeing that with the guys he's running out there on a daily basis.
* Two weeks ago, West Virginia didn't have a single player hitting above .300 in its lineup, threatening a streak of 65 straight years with the Mountaineers having at least one .300 hitter. Well, Tyler Doanes is now batting .314 and Darius Hill has his average up to .312.
The team batting average has also risen about 20 points to .262 heading into Saturday morning's Big 12 semifinal game against either Texas Tech or Kansas.
* It's a shame more people in West Virginia couldn't watch last night's game because WVU fans in the Mountain State are really beginning to get behind Mazey's program. I believe Suddenlink in Charleston had the telecast, as well as DIRECTV subscribers, but that's it.
It will be the same deal on Saturday as well, so you will have to lock in Dan Zangrilli and Ernie Galusky on the radio on baseball's growing affiliate list. Three new affiliates were recently added to the postseason baseball lineup – WETZ-AM in New Martinsville, WKMM-FM in Kingwood and WVBD-FM in Beckley - bringing the total number of affiliates to 16.
There's plenty of room on the bandwagon for any late comers.
* And finally, count Mazey among the proponents of instant replay. Three reviews during yesterday's game went in his team's favor.
"I love replay. I love it as a fan when I come to the other games, too," he said. "When there is a call and those guys go underneath to look at the monitor I think it's kind of exciting waiting for them to come out and make the call.
"There's been games changed. The object is to get the calls right and whatever that takes I'm in favor of it."
And while it takes time to review plays, instant replay has cut down on the amount of time wasted when coaches come out to argue calls. That part of the game is becoming almost obsolete.
"I don't believe coaches should be allowed on the field at all, at any time," Mazey said. "I think that slows down the game tremendously. It's easier to get along with (umpires) because of replay and they're in favor of it, too, so we're kind of learning as we go."
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