To begin the press conference, coach Randy Mazey spoke about how he felt about the team’s performance in the Super Regionals: “Just so proud of how we competed down here, not many people picked us to win this thing and do what we did and have such performances, I mean this guy beside me (pitcher Tyler Switalski), that’s the best he’s pitched as a Mountaineer. And to do that on this stage, I mean these kids in this program… will remember this feeling they have right now, watching the other team dogpile, and that kind of stuff drives you. It drives them from the first day of fall practice next year, they’re gonna have to drive without Old Coach Maz.”
He then touched on the difficulty of playing in the Super Regionals, but then showed he has high hopes for the future of the program: “It’s hard, first time you play in a Super Regional, it’s hard to, so this is the natural progression of a program; last 12 years what we’ve accomplished and what we keep accomplishing, keep doing better than we’ve ever done before…and next time you get to a Super Regional and win it it’s something that’s never (been) done before so there’s plenty of room to improve this Mountaineer program and I feel really good about the future of it.”
Mazey was then asked what his message was for his team after two close games against North Carolina, the #4 ranked team in the nation. Mazey’s response, “The message was… how proud, not just I am, but how proud they should be of themselves, how proud they made our University or community or (the) entire state.”
Mazey talked about the historical implications of this year’s team as well. “This team as we sit here today, we go down in history as a team that’s achieved the most in the history of the program, over 120 years of baseball, they’ve never achieved this much so really proud of it.”
In regards to his team’s mindset, Mazey talked about their thoughts of playing with nothing to lose: “You know we said going into it we were playing with house money, because we’ve never been this far as a program, and when you play with house money it doesn’t mean it’s okay to lose… You can play a lot more relaxed, and I thought we did. We played relaxed, we played confident, I don’t think there was a doubt in our dugout the whole time that we’re gonna win that game, and the closer we got the more energy we got, that was pretty cool.”
Mazey also mentioned how great the games in the Super Regional were for the fans. “I don’t know how much tickets were going for on StubHub for this Super Regional, but they dang sure got their money’s worth. That was two really, really good competitive games, fun to watch. If you’re not a college baseball fan by now, you dang sure should be.”
An emotional coach Mazey continued reflecting on his time with West Virginia, “You know a lot of people say the old cliche, leave something better than you found it, and I can feel good moving on in my career that we have 1.8 million people in the state of West Virginia that are proud of this program, and I wouldn’t in any way shape or form take credit for that. I’m smart enough to surround myself with good people and that’s been the secret sauce, it’s been the people.”
Throughout the press conference, Mazey and shortstop JJ Wetherholt talked about their relationship, but Mazey summarized Wetherholt’s impact on the program. “You know some guys come along in your career that can single-handedly change the face of an entire program… JJ Wetherholt has changed West Virginia baseball forever.”
Concluding the press conference, Mazey reflected on his coaching career. “I’m going to walk out of here feeling really really good about my baseball career and how this thing ended.”
