A Tip of the Hat to Randy Mazey

It's the end of an era in Morgantown.

West Virginia University head coach Randy Mazey. / Christopher Hall

The Randy Mazey era in Morgantown officially came to an end Saturday night. His legacy, however, will live on forever.

Prior to accepting the head coaching job at WVU in 2013, the baseball program was on the verge of being shut down. There was serious discussion as to whether or not baseball should be kept as a team sport as the school transitioned into the Big 12 - a league notorious for great baseball. The school not only opted to keep the program alive, but they accomplished things that were thought to be impossible thanks to the Mountaineer skipper of the past dozen years.

Did you ever make it to old Hawley Field? If not, you didn't miss much. It was not a stadium suitable for the Big 12, or even the Big East for that matter. My alma mater, John Marshall High School, probably had more time and money invested into it than the previous home of WVU baseball.

Hawley Field (WVU Athletics Communications) /

Mazey helped usher in a state of the art ballpark in Granville, one that is now considered among one of the best in the Big 12. Building that stadium would have been a massive flop if Mazey never got the program off the ground. A lot of time, money, and other resources would have been wasted for a program that not only struggled to win but gain fan interest. Support in WVU baseball has never been higher and the university has Mazey to thank for that.

A 21-year NCAA Tournament drought came to an end in 2017, the program hosted a regional for the first time ever two years later, captured a Big 12 regular season title in 2023, and made it to the super regionals for the first time in 2024. Mazey has also produced 38 draft picks (and counting), including two first rounders in Alek Manoah and J.J. Wetherholt who is a surefire first rounder in next month's draft.

Mazey checked off a lot of boxes during his time as the head coach at WVU and put the program on the map while doing so. College baseball may not be as popular as basketball or football, but he made it something the people in this state truly care about. He'll now pass the program off into the hands of Steve Sabins, someone who he fully trusts to keep the momentum in Morgantown rolling.

"This transition is going to be really smooth. I didn't hire Coach Sabins as my successor. Wren Baker did. And Wren Baker has been the best thing to happen to WVU baseball here in the last seven or eight years. He hired Coach Sabins after meeting with him and getting to know him and spend time with him and I think that's the exact right move because we've all seen what a terrible transition can do to a program here recently. And I wanted to make sure that if I did this that the transition was going to be really, really smooth and the program was going to stay at a level to make the people proud of it."

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