Randy Mazey was aware that last week’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft could rob his 2017 team of eight to 10 players. He was wrong, wonderfully wrong, and had but three players selected. Closer Blake Smith was a senior, so he can’t be counted among the eight to 10.

Chad Donato was the team’s best pitcher, and he was picked in the 11th round. Prep outfielder/infielder Jordan Scott was picked in the 14th round. Both are likely gone to pro baseball.

This isn’t a good or a bad thing. It’s just a thing, a thing that happens but hadn’t happened a whole heck of a lot before Mazey. He’s had 14 players drafted in his four years, and that’s the program’s best four-year total. He said he’ll talk to the drafted players who can return to school, but he knows the eventual decision is his to shape and not to make.

Mazey, who’s been coaching since he began as a graduate assistant in 1990, said his life is affected more by his degree from Clemson than by what he could do on the diamond, but he was also a three-time all-ACC player who was drafted in the 28th round by the Cleveland Indians in 1988. He played two seasons before getting into coaching with the Tigers.

“Whether kids listen to the advice anymore in this world of agents and advisors and uncles and cousins and the Internet, who knows?” said Mazey, a head coach at Charleston Southern and East Carolina and an assistant at Georgia, Tennessee, ECU, Clemson and TCU before WVU.

“I’ve had a lot kids who’ve been drafted and a lot of kids who’ve played Major League Baseball and a lot of kids who signed out of high school and were released in a couple years. Based on my experience, I try to educate them as best as I can. Whatever decision they make is up to them. It’s an honor, of course, to be drafted, but there’s way more that goes into it than just jumping up and signing a contract after the draft.”

Donato was one of six juniors who were available, and WVU is no doubt fortunate to return first baseman Jackson Cramer, catcher Ray Guerrini, relievers Brandon Boone and Jackson Sigman and outfelder/designated hitter Shaun Wood.

Scott was one of the elite recruits in Mazey’s best WVU recruiting class, but the Mountaineers will still make space in the locker room for the rest of the recruits, most notably Miami pitcher/first baseman Alek Manoah.

WVU will also say hello to pitcher/infielder Isaiah Kearns, one of the top pro or college prospects in Pennsylvania, and New Jersey infielder Kevin Brophy. Mazey suspected they could  have been picked, though he was hopeful everyone would consider the benefits and potential of college baseball.

Scott is probably gone, and he’s changed his Twitter profile, replacing the “West Virginia University” part of his brief bio to read “New York Yankees organization.” Donato all but said after he was picked Saturday that he was gone, as well.

WVU hasn’t confirmed anything, but Donato hasn’t walked anything back, either. He even seems excited that he’ll get a chance to rehabilitate in the pros what could be a serious arm injury that might have kept him from helping WVU in 2017 anyhow.

The examination showed he’d strained his ulna collateral nerve, possibly partially tore it, and is facing either long rehabilitation or Tommy John surgery, which is a tough way to begin a professional career.

“I’m going to have some of the best professional doctors with the major league teams. I’m in their hands now. I don’t know if I’ll rehab without surgery or need surgery,” he said. “I believe and trust these guys. There’s a reason they are doctors for a major league team.”

And he isn’t terribly shaken by the injury.

“If I had to pick an injury, I’d rather have Tommy John than a labrum tear in my shoulder,” Donato said. “Forty percent of major league pitchers have Tommy John surgery. Look at Stephen Strasburg. Everyone knows about him. He tore up his elbow. He was throwing in high school at 88-92. Now he throws at 98 and is hitting 100.

“It all depends on the rehab. You really have to attack and you can come back better than you were before.”