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When it was announced that the West Virginia baseball team would host an NCAA Regional for the first time since 1955 Sunday evening, the Mountaineers were unaware of the news at first.

That’s because the team was on a flight back home following Sunday’s 5-2 loss to Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Tournament title game in Oklahoma City.

However, head coach Randy Mazey and senior associate athletic director Matt Wells were determined to find out whether or not they’d be regional hosts during the flight even though the plane didn’t have WiFi.

“Matt had talked to the pilot, told him the story of what was getting ready to happen and asked, since there was no WiFi on the plane, if the pilot could call ahead to somebody on the ground when the show made the announcement and have one of the flight attendants come back and tell us,” Mazey said.

“And he said, ‘Sure, be happy to do that.’”

Later on, Wells asked a flight attendant to go check with the pilot a second time to see if someone on the ground had any news, but the flight attendant came back with news that the program was not selected to host a regional.

“My heart dropped, Matt’s heart dropped,” Mazey said. “The story we went with, between the two of us, was maybe they don’t know yet, maybe she’s trying to tell us they haven’t found out yet. But the show was over at that point so we knew that wasn’t true, but that’s the story we were going with. So we decided to keep that amongst ourselves.”

It wasn’t until the team’s plane began descending and phone service became available when word quickly spread throughout the plane that the Mountaineers were indeed going to be regional hosts, meaning there was miscommunication between the pilot and whoever was following the news on the ground.

At that moment, an accomplishment that hasn’t been achieved in the program in 64 years became a reality and the tone of players, coaches and others associated with the program was the exact opposite of what you would expect from a team that was coming off a conference title game loss.

“There was just one loud, ‘Yes!’” junior right-handed pitcher Alek Manoah said. “It was pretty exciting.”

Before the news broke on the plane, junior center fielder Brandon White was sleeping and quite literally saw his dream of the team hosting a regional come true.

“I was dreaming about it really and I knew instantly when everybody just started screaming, I just knew were hosting,” White said.

The regional host bid may have been more than six decades in the making but the honor culminates just how far the program has come in the past decade and under Mazey’s tenure which began in 2013--West Virginia’s first season in the Big 12.

Before Monongalia County Ballpark opened its gates in 2015, Hawley Field served as the home of Mountaineer baseball from 1971-2014.

Mazey said he enjoyed the atmosphere at Hawley Field as well as the setting despite there being no locker rooms or restrooms for the team.

“My favorite part of Hawley Field was when I had to use the restroom, you stood right in line with everyone else," Mazey said with a laugh. "That was when the fans were asking me why I bunted and who was going to pitch the next inning while I was waiting my turn.”

But since Hawley Field’s quality and amenities had declined and didn’t meet Big 12 standards, West Virginia played most of its Big 12 home games between Charleston and Beckley. This, along with long trips to play other Big 12 opponents on the road, would make the travel schedule that much more grueling for the team.

“If you’re in a profession where you have to travel a lot, you guys know how tired you get,” Mazey said. “It’s just the fatigue that sets in with what we go through early in the year and the way our kids overcome it, you just can’t understand how hard that is.”

As construction began for the new Monongalia County Ballpark, a new recruiting strategy and vision for the program was also being built.

The plans for the new ballpark were used as a recruiting tool for Mazey in an effort to get players such as seniors and Texas natives Ivan Gonzalez and Darius Hill as well as Manoah, a Florida native, to commit to the gold and blue.

The stadium wasn’t completed, so their recruitments centered around an idea to build and elevate the program as well as create a new winning tradition in Morgantown rather than just becoming part of one at another school elsewhere.

“I remember the very first bullpen (Gonzalez) ever caught was down the right field line (at) Hawley Field and those guys took a leap of faith,” Mazey said. “When we started recruiting those kids, we were selling them on an idea at that point because the stadium wasn’t finished, we were selling them on an idea.”

“They bought in to the commitment that we had as coaches, what the administration had, the vision of the stadium and the conference and they took a leap of faith and I think, I don’t want to speak for them but, I think it’s worked out pretty well for those kids,” he later added.

Fast Forward to the present where this year’s senior class will play in the NCAA Regionals for the second time and three years. Prior to making NCAA Regional in Winston-Salem during the 2017 season, the Mountaineers hadn’t earned a spot in the regionals since 1996.

Since its inaugural season in the Big 12 in 2013, the Mountaineers have overcome the odds that were stacked against them that started when they were picked to finish last in the conference that season and of course the excessive travel schedule.

West Virginia finished third in the Big 12 that season and hasn’t missed the conference tournament once. The Mountaineers have also played in the Big 12 tournament semifinals four straight years to go along with a pair of title game appearances.

Take all that and put it together with two NCAA Regional appearances in three years and a regional host bid and you got a baseball program that looks to have an even brighter future ahead.

“You know I’m super excited for our community,” Mazey said. “People don’t understand the impact that hosting a regional does for the entire community and state and alumni base. Hopefully this will change the face of our program.”

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