MCWS takeover: West Virginia fans have turned Omah...

OMAHA, Neb. -- A man who must've been 70 years old felt so moved by a baseball team that he approached Randy Mazey on Sunday at Let It Fly Sports Bar, the unofficial pregame hangout location for West Virginia Mountaineers baseball fans at the Men's College World Series. Mazey isn't even West Virginia's baseball coach anymore. He retired two years ago to spend more time with his family and watch his kids play sports. He's in Omaha strictly to cheer on coach Steve Sabins -- his former assistant -- and the program. But then this stranger walked up to him and said he has been watching Mountaineers sports his whole life and told him how thankful he was for Mazey, Sabins and the incredible West Virginia run that allowed him to follow his beloved team to Omaha. "He was hugging me and crying," Mazey said. "And I'm like, geez. You don't get that when you're on the field doing scouting reports. "The part I didn't tell you is that I'm an emotional guy. So, when he started crying, I started crying. For it to mean that much to other people makes it mean that much to me." Their first trip to the MCWS means so much that in just about every corner of downtown Omaha, there's an influx of blue and gold, poorly-sung verses of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" -- which is sung after every WVU victory -- boozy celebrations and, most of all, community pride. COUNTRY ROADS HITS DIFFERENT IN OMAHA 🔥@WVUBaseball gets a W in its MCWS debut! pic.twitter.com/Tam3EdaJSf — ESPN (@espn) June 12, 2026 West Virginia University's sports programs are a large part of the identity of the state, which has 1.78 million people. And this season, the Mountaineers have given West Virginia the biggest thing to cheer for in more than a decade. Thousands of alumni scattered throughout the country, along with fans from Morgantown and points all over the state, have represented the biggest MCWS fan takeover in 2026. Kevin Berry, CEO of the WVU alumni association, said the high number of fans in Omaha makes it feel like "the Midwest version of Morgantown." "I tell people all the time -- all you got to do is put the game on the schedule, and Mountaineer fans are going to show up," Berry said. "They did not disappoint." The Mountaineers will try to extend their stay Tuesday in an elimination game against Troy (2 p.m. ET on ESPN). With every pitch, coaches and players know what's at stake, and that an entire state will be watching. "They don't have any professional sports teams in West Virginia, so they live for this," Mountaineers utility player Gavin Kelly said. "[The fans] die for this sport." Perhaps no scene epitomized that passion more than the viral videos that emerged from Morgantown during the regional and super regional rounds over the past few weeks. The Mountaineers' ballpark seats roughly 3,500, and the attendance nearly doubled with people standing outside the facility and perched on a hill called Randy's Ridge, which fans say was coined years ago after Mazey was ejected from a game and drove his truck up the hill to watch the final innings. The super regional crowd was loud, raucous and featured a man in sunglasses and a Davy Crockett cap who walked down the stadium steps with what appeared to be a raccoon. More than a half-dozen school officials and fans interviewed for this story said they had no idea who the fan was, or the status of the object that was in his hands. "It was probably a stuffed animal or something," said John Antonik, a former Mountaineers baseball sports information director and a WVU historian. "I don't think [security] is going to let him bring a live raccoon in. "In this day and age, it's pretty easy to become viral. I think people try to outdo themselves because they know that eventually it's going to take on a life of its own." Antonik was one of the few people left in Morgantown on Monday, and he recalled a time when a MCWS run seemed impossible. It was 2012, and West Virginia was joining the Big 12, leaving baseball in purgatory. The program wasn't well supported and seemed doomed in a conference with baseball powerhouses. Antonik said Oliver Luck, then the athletic director at WVU, called together a group that included pro baseball executives for a summit. The takeaway was that West Virginia needed new facilities, and that it would need to find a developmental coach. Luck hired Mazey and made plans to build. Mazey's teams played some early Big 12 games at Hawley Field, an aging facility that Antonik called a "glorified high school field." The Big 12 bluebloods had a hard time playing at the stadium because of its antiquated features. The late Augie Garrido, a legendary Texas Longhorns coach, once had to wait in line with the fans to use the bathroom. A new stadium -- now the Kendrick Family Ballpark -- opened in 2015. It was built over old coal mines. Two years later, the Mountaineers made their first NCAA tournament appearance in more than two decades. In 2023, West Virginia won a share of its first Big 12 regular-season championship. On Friday, before their first MCWS game, the Mountaineers faithful packed into Rocco's, an establishment across the street from Charles Schwab Field famous for its Jell-O Shot Challenge. West Virginia was trailing the fans from Ole Miss that morning in the count of shots consumed, but Josh Valentine, a 2012 WVU alum, assured the group around him that would change once the new numbers were posted. (By Monday night, West Virginia fans led the challenge with over 23,300 shots consumed -- more than twice as many as any other team in Omaha. Valentine was doing his part; he said he had consumed 17 shots since arriving at the bar. He lives in Texas, and he drove 12 hours to Omaha, entertaining himself with a playlist of the walk-up songs of each West Virginia player. "And I rocked it out." He said he started off with "My Girl," the walk-up song for freshman utility Armani Guzman. That afternoon, Guzman stole home for the first run of the game. Valentine lives a time zone away from Morgantown now, but he can recite the accomplishments of West Virginia teams this past season. He brags about the rifle team and dreams big about football. He said this MCWS appearance is the biggest thing since Bob Huggins took the men's basketball team to the Final Four in 2010. But if the Mountaineers can stick around this weekend and make it to the finals ... He slurped a shot and readied himself for the game, and Mountaineers history. "We've been training for years for this," Valentine said. Mazey said he was just hoping they can sing a few more rounds of "Take Me Home, Country Roads." Every January, he'd make sure his players memorized the song. After each spring practice, he'd call on a different player to sing it in front of their teammates. If they made a mistake, they'd have to do it over the next day. He loves the fact that millions of people are hearing the song now, and all because of West Virginia. "I've never gotten sick of it," he said. "It's my favorite song, because we only play it after you win. If you're happy, you might as well sing."