Randy Mazey holding his head high as WVU's season and his career ends
As Randy Mazey wiped tears from his eyes, it wasn’t all sad tears as West Virginia’s season, and his career came to an end.
Mazey and the Mountaineers lost 2-1 to North Carolina on Saturday night, ending their historic 2024 season as No. 4 North Carolina continued on to the College World Series.
“That was a pretty hard fought 18 innings right there. I don’t know if they were expecting that out of the Mountaineers to come down here and do what we did,” West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey said.
For Mazey, he knew this weekend signified a lot in the ascension of West Virginia baseball. Mazey had taken WVU to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments over the past two seasons, and accomplishments in his time at WVU included hosting a regional, winning a Big 12 regular season title, as well as making four trips to the NCAA Tournament since 2017.
"It’s hard. First time you play in a Super Regional, it’s hard to win. This is the natural progression of a program,” Mazey said.
“Last 12 years what we’ve accomplished and what we keep accomplishing and keep doing better than we’ve ever done before and ever done before. And next time you get to a Super Regional and you win it, it’s something you’ve never done before. Plenty of room to improve the Mountaineer program.”
As his team gathered in their final huddle of the season, Mazey was emotional speaking to them, while reflecting on the season they put together.
“The message was how proud, not just I am — how proud they should be of themselves. How proud they have made our university, our community, our entire state,” Mazey said.
“We talked about it last night, you guys just don’t understand what being at West Virginia is like. How many people out there are proud of these kids in these uniforms tonight. This team as we sit here today will go down in history as the team that achieved the most in the history of the program. Over 120 years of baseball, they’ve never achieved this much, so really proud of them.”
Mazey finishes the 2024 season with a 36-24 record, and a place in the history books as the first Mountaineer squad to ever make it to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament. Mazey said this group of players will always be remembered and will hold a special place in his heart.
“I told my guys in my 35 years of coaching, that’s the team I want to end my career with, the guys that were in that huddle. I love every one of them and I think they know that. The way we coach is, I don’t care if you don’t get hits, I don’t care if you don’t throw strikes, I’m not going to love you any less. When kids feel that way, that enables them to play with some freedom and have some fun.
“So, all you Little League parents out there and Little League coaches, love your kids whether they get hits or not because it’s important to them to know that the people in their lives love them more as people than love them as players. And I sure love every one of those guys.”
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