Baseball Opens on Friday
The Ospreys have seven starters returning from last year’s team that had an overall record of 31-24 while playing in the Atlantic Sun Conference. “We’re all anxious this time of year and our guys get tired of playing against each other and practicing against each other,” said Mazey recently. “You’re always anxious to see a different uniform show up.” From what he’s seen so far, Mazey believes he has a pretty good blend of experience and youth that should make things pretty interesting around here this spring. “It was kind of a scramble because we got here so late in the summertime to sign the players that we did,” said Mazey. “I think we signed 18 or 19 guys in about four weeks, which is really hard to do at that time of year. My assistant coaches were road warriors there for an entire month, but I think it’s paid off.” Mazey is really encouraged by what he’s seen so far from the offense, which like the rest of the teams in college baseball, has had to adapt to the changes in the bats that took place a few years ago. Mountaineer fans can expect a more aggressive team on the base paths this year. “When the bats changed two or three years ago, it changed the entire game of college baseball,” said Mazey. “Home runs are way harder to come by now and we play in some parks in the Big 12 that it’s hard to hit the ball out of those parks. At Texas and TCU, it’s really hard to hit homers so you have to create some offense and with the kids we have in the lineup we have a chance to do that. “We’ve got some kids that can run and handle the bat and I’m pretty excited to see these guys play,” Mazey said, adding that he believes there will be some pretty good players on the bench who can swing the bat as well. “Our biggest problem right now is we’re going to have a good offensive player sitting on the bench when I post a lineup,” he said. “That’s a good problem to have and we’ll be able to do some different things with matchups and those types of things.” It may not happen right away, but Mazey can see this team causing some problems for opposing pitching staffs at some point down the road. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse – it might not happen right out of the gate because of the way we are practicing right now and being indoors – but eventually when this team catches its stride offensively I think we can do some good things,” he said. However, it is on the mound where games are usually won and lost. Mazey has developed a reputation for field teams with strong pitching staffs and that’s why he went out and hired the best pitching coach he could find in Derek Matlock. “Derek came from Texas State and if you look at their stats and the pitchers they ran through that program, they really, really overachieved with kids that weren’t recruited by Texas, TCU and Texas A&M,” Mazey noted. “He’s got a great history of developing pitchers and I’ve had a lot of success with pitchers at TCU and that’s been our emphasis right now because if you can’t pitch you can’t win.” Friday’s game will get underway at 6 p.m. Saturday the two teams will play at 1 p.m. before wrapping up the weekend with a noon game on getaway day. |
 Harrison Musgrave strikes out 14 in TCU victory |
 Around the Horn with Randy Mazey |
 TCU Postgame: Randy Mazey |
 TCU Postgame: Randy Mazey |
 Around the Horn With Randy Mazey |
 Randy Mazey Teleconference |
