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West Virginia's retiring coach Randy Mazey danced one dance too many with the one who "brung" him, Derek Clark, and wound up getting his feet stomped on by North Carolina, which won the opening game of the NCAA Super Regional, 8-6, on a two-run, walk-off home run by Vance Honeycutt.
Three outs from a road victory in the school's first ever Super Regional appearance, Mazey was faced with perhaps the most important decision he has had to make in his 34-year coaching career, the last 12 of those years being at West Virginia.
That was whether or not to let his ace left-hander, Clark, face the bottom of the Tar Heel lineup in the bottom of the ninth inning in a game the Mountaineers led, 6-5.
Clark had already thrown 133 pitches in eight innings, a season high, but also was cruising along nicely having allowed only one run on three hits after being touched up for a four-run third inning. Pitch No. 134 changed everything dramatically.
Catcher Luke Stevenson hit his first pitch of the ninth inning high and deep to centerfield, just high enough and just deep enough to clear the fence, maybe a foot above the glove of a leaping Aaron Jamison.
Clark knew as soon as the ball left the bat that it was trouble, his shoulders slumping as he looked at the dirt before turning to follow the flight of the ball.
That only tied it and Mazey continued to stick with his southpaw, who struck out the next batter before giving up a single through the middle to Alex Madira.
"I could have kept going if he needed me to," Clark said. "But I gave up a leadoff home run and then the single. It was crunch time so I don't blame him for pulling me there."
With the winning run now on base, Mazey had no choice but to end Clark's stay on the mound at 144 pitches. He walked slowly to the center of the diamond and took the ball from the pitcher who had given all he had trying to win this one. Before Clark left to be greeted by teammates in the dugout, Mazey gave him a hug and turned the game over to reliever Aidan Major.
Major, who had relieved in the clinching game in Tucson's Regional after not having pitched for a month with a bad arm, struck out the first batter he faced for the inning's second out but then stood facing Vance Honeycutt, a projected first-round draft pick who owned the school record with 61 home runs and was the only player in ACC history to hit 60 homers and steal 70 bases in a career.
The count went to 3 and 0 and Mazey admits he thought about walking Honeycutt intentionally.
"There kind of was that thought but Casey Cook has way more singles this year than Honeycutt has home runs. You hate to play against a homer. I thought Cook hitting a single to win the game was way more likely than Honeycutt hitting a homer … even though he has about 100," Mazey said.
So they pitched to Honeycutt and he crushed one high and far over the left-field fence for a no-doubt, two-run, tie-breaking, walk-off home run that put North Carolina one win from a trip to the College World Series and leaving WVU needing to win two straight on the Tar Heels home field.
North Carolina is 36-3 at home this season.
Mazey was hardly crushed by the defeat and was not about to second-guess anything he did.
"That's college baseball at its finest. Two really good college baseball teams among the last 16 teams left in the country just battling back and forth and back and forth. I'm sad right now but it was fun to watch."
At least, for WVU fans, until the ninth inning West Virginia was riding the offensive heroics of a most surprising player.
Kyle West was the designated hitter and he had come into the game with just one hit in his previous 32 at bats while striking out 17 times, but just all good things come to an end, so do all bad things and West broke off his slump with a flourish.
He hit a solo home run leading off the third inning, doubled to drive in a run in the fourth and then, in the sixth hit a 425-foot bomb that cleared everything in right field with Grant Hussey on base to give the Mountaineers a 6-4 lead.
An inning later, in the seventh, WVU wasted an opportunity to break the game open when both JJ Wetherholt and Logan Sauve were hit with pitches to put runners at first and second with no one out.
Kevin White, the No. 3 hitter, bunted the runners to second and third as WVU looked for some insurance, but Reed Chumley struck out and Hussey bounced to the mound and WVU could not get any add-on runs.
"If we get a hit there it's 8-4, so that was a big moment," Mazey said.