WVU hits reset button for Big 12 baseball championship

“We had an off day (on Sunday) and got a team lift in,” said Mazey of the team’s schedule. WVU will then bus to Arlington on Monday and have the chance to get in a session at Globe Life Ballpark, the site of the tournament.

“We’ll just be getting used to the environment and surroundings,” said Mazey of that workout. “We’ll let them play some balls off the bat live, get used to the field, and be ready to play on Wednesday.”

WVU’s play against the Longhorns wasn’t typical of what it has shown for most of the year. In addition to rough outings from its starting pitchers and some iffy defensive play, the Mountaineers were unable to get their running and pressure game going. They did not record a stolen base in the first two contests, and didn’t force the Horns to defend inside the basepaths as they have most other foes.

Still, Mazey doesn’t want to force a return to that if the opponent is strong in that area of play.

“I’ve always said we don’t run just to run,” said Mazey. “We will run if the opportunity presents itself. But if it doesn’t, we don’t want to force it.”

That has been one of West Virginia’s strengths this year — the ability to win games in different manners, and not be forced into one style of play. That didn’t work out over the past weekend, but Mazey believes he and his team can get back on that track this week, starting with Wednesday night’s game against Texas Tech.

“You just have to do what got you here,” he said of analyzing the three previous games against the Red Raiders, of which the Mountaineers won two a couple of weeks ago. “We’ll put our best team out there and see who comes out on top.”

WVU dropped the first game of that series by the score of 5-3, but rebounded to take it with 17-2 and 5-3 wins in the final two games.

One of the decisions left to be made is the starting pitcher for that game, and for the succeeding contests in Arlington. WVU changed its rotation a bit last weekend, starting Carson Estridge on Thursday, moving Blaine Traxel up to Friday and holding Ben Hampton until Saturday. Mazey said a decision on the starters for the first contests in Arlington will be made as early as Monday evening.

“We’ll see how everyone responds and recovers, and feels,” said Mazey, who oversees the pitching staff. “We’ll probably decide in the next day or so. Things can change all the time based on match-ups and feel, but we’ll see how they throw and make some sort of decision (Sunday or Monday).”

Mazey indicated that the starters will come from the group that has been getting the ball at the start of games over the last half of the season.

“We won’t do anything crazy.”

The third-seeded Mountaineers play in the final game of Wednesday’s four-game session, with first pitch against the No. 6 Red Raiders scheduled for 8:30 p.m.