Greg Van Zant did WHAT!?

Greg Van Zant photo: MSNSportsNet

Wow… this seems to be the lowest of lows for Greg Van Zant and the WVU Baseball team.

An article was brought to my attention very recently regarding GVZ and the team’s trip out to Corvallis, OR for their matchup against the Oregon State Beavers.

This article came from the Gazette-Times in Corvallis… when I read this, I instantly went through the roof. Such a sad state of affairs our baseball team has to go through.

From the article…

"Before Ben Wetzler threw one pitch against West Virginia, the Mountaineers had already asked for mercy.Maybe they shouldn’t have.Wetzler was without mercy in throwing a one-hitter with eight strikeouts in Oregon State’s first appearance at Goss Stadium this season.The sophomore lefty got plenty of support, as the Beavers turned eight hits, seven walks and two hit batters into an 11-0 victory over West Virginia in the first game of the Nike Collegiate Classic on Friday in front of 2,255 fans.The game was shortened by a 10-run rule, and presented Wetzler (3-0) with his first collegiate complete game.“Not since high school,” Wetzler said. “I hadn’t thrown one in college. That was kind of a cheap one, but I’ll take it.”"

Wow… “not since high school” and calling it a “cheap win” makes this a very embarrassing situation.

How is Greg Van Zant allowed to do this? Does he not have confidence in his players, even after spending a lot of time with them at Golden Corral? Actually, how the hell is GVZ still employed at WVU? He seemed to get away with whatever when Pastilong was in charge, but there’s a new Sheriff in town, and we know he won’t put up with this for much longer. Personally, if I were Oliver Luck, I would have fired GVZ on the spot for this.

More from the article…

"As for the 10-run rule, that was decided on before the game, but still came as a surprise.“I did not know until I got to home plate and their coach asked me if we’d play with a 10-run rule,” OSU coach Pat Casey said. “I don’t know what you say to that. I guess you say ‘Yeah.’"

This is the type of stuff that will make WVU the laughingstock of the Big12 Baseball if this keeps up.

Absolutely disgusting from the coach, and he needs to be immediately fired. The Big12 takes baseball seriously, believe it or not. Plus, with TCU coming in, their baseball ranks are just going to improve. Not so much with West Virginia.

Last year, Luck gave Van Zant a 1-yr contract extension. Maybe this is nothing more than Greg Van Zant’s swan song and Luck hasn’t found someone for the baseball team yet.

People (myself included) want to care about WVU Baseball, but we can’t as long as GVZ continues to run it like a Little League team… complete with terrible facilities. I mean, Hawley Field doesn’t even have locker rooms! Luck has even entertained the idea of moving games to Charleston. That would be a solid idea (one I could get behind) and I think would increase attendance and interest in WVU Baseball. Hopefully they get a new field built in Morgantown within the next 5 years.

It’s time to get rid of Greg Van Zant, plain and simple.