Mazey talks 9th inning, Clark and West's performances after walk-off loss
In their first-ever Super Regional appearance on Friday, West Virginia carried a 6-5 lead into the ninth inning against No. 4 North Carolina.
One pitch later the game was tied. Four batters later, WVU walked off the field with their heads hanging, while Vance Honeycutt danced around the bases celebrating his two-run, walk-off home run, as the Mountaineers fell, 8-6.
Honeycutt came into the game as unarguably North Carolina's best hitter. He had 24 home runs on the year, and a 3-1 fastball from Aidan Major was sent over the left field fence, and a raucous crowd at Boshamer Stadium erupted as UNC is one win away from a College World Series appearance.
"There kind of was," West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey said on the thought of walking Honeycutt. [On deck batter Casey] Cook has way more singles this year than Honeycutt has homers. You hate to play against a homer. I thought Cook hitting a single to win the game was a lot more likely than Honeycutt hitting a homer even though he has about 100."
Derek Clark gave West Virginia everything he had and then some on the mound.
The lefty started off strong, but a walk started a rally for the Tar Heels, who later loaded the bases and cleared them on a three-run double, before they ended up putting up four runs in the inning.
That made the score 4-1 UNC, as Kyle West got WVU on the board in the top of the third with a solo home run to right field. West came up again and doubled in the fourth, scoring Brodie Kresser who eluded a tag at home plate on a slide that he got his hand in.
The game would be knotted up at 4-4 as Reed Chumley hit a two-run blast, before West came up and again hit a home run, also of the two-run variety, as WVU took a 6-4 lead.
"Our DH spot has rotated the last month or so and it’s turned into all three or four of them have different swings that match up with different pitches. I just thought Kyle’s swing matched up with the lefty that was on the mound better than the other guys," Mazey said of West. "And, he went to the black magic bat 24 hours ago. We had a conversation behind the batting cage, he picked up a new bat, had a great round of BP, haters are crazy people. They get confidence from the dumbest things sometimes and what a great night he had."
WVU tried to get some offense going in the seventh, but after they had runners on second and third with one out, Chumley struck out, before Grant Hussey grounded out to strand two.
"If we get a hit there and make it 8-4, it's a little bit of a different game," Mazey said. "That was a big moment. We bunted those guys over, but they had run their relievers out there. The guy that was in there was the least famous of their bullpen arms. I like Chumley's chances and I like Hussey's chances of getting a single there. But it's easy to look back and say, I wish I wouldn't have bunted Sam White there... leaving those two guys out there was a big one."
Clark settled in throughout the middle innings for the Mountaineers. The Tar Heels wouldn't score again until the seventh when Colby Wilkerson hit a solo home run, as WVU's lead shrunk to just one run.
Clark ended the eighth inning with a stare down and a strut back to WVU's dugout, as his tally was at 133 pitches and he retired UNC's 3-4-5 hitters in order. The 134th pitch and first one of the ninth inning, tied the game.
"I don’t have any interest in fist fighting Derek Clark on the mound," Mazey said.
"That guy’s a warrior. You guys saw what we’ve been seeing the whole season. He’s a throwback. He’s a throwback, back to the Nolan Ryan days when guys were throwing 200 pitches, he can do that. Everybody gives coaches a hard time for letting guys throw, I don’t even know how many he threw. [144 pitches], 100 strikes. Good luck finding a guy who throws 100 strikes these days. I promise you he wants to pitch again, I promise you that."
West Virginia now faces a must-win game tomorrow night to keep their season alive. First pitch is set for 8:00 p.m., as WVU will send Tyler Switalski out to try and level the series and force a pivotal game three on Sunday.
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