By Bill Nestor
West Virginia University head baseball coach Randy Mazey has indicated that this next baseball season will be his last. Mazey put ink to paper on a new deal with the University that will span three years. Mazey will make it an even dozen on the diamond next season before sliding into a senior advisor role for the 2025 and 2026 campaigns.
Mazey started his coaching career at his alma mater, Clemson, in 1990. After getting his feet wet, Mazey elevated his status to head coach at Charleston Southern in 1996. Three years at Southern led to a stint at East Carolina. Mazey would guide the Pirate program from 2003 to 2005. The then veteran mentor would spend seven seasons as an assistant at TCU.
In 2012, the Mountaineer baseball program was going through a rough patch. The squad was coming off of a 23 and 32 record, and going back to add the two previous years and WVU had a 78 and 89 mark. The program was in dire need of a leader, and they found one in Mazey. Mazey would implement his principles, develop talent, and recruit top notch talent. It took three years to build a program from the ground up. Mazey built the base while his teams would produce near .500 seasons.
In 2016, the University would start to reap the benefits of Mazey’s hard work, a 36 and 22 record that included a 20 win home total. The Mountaineers had some new home digs to promote pride within the program in 2015 with the opening of Wagoner Field at Monongalia County Ballpark. The $21 million ballpark featured state-of-the-art amenities that made some major league parks blush. It would have a 3,500 seat capacity that was shattered multiple times by Mazey’s teams.
Three consecutive winning seasons led to his big breakthrough. Mazey would take the Mountaineers 16 games above .500 with a 38 and 22 record. They would host a regional game and claim an NCAA tournament win over Fordham. The pandemic put the clamps on a couple of campaigns, but two years agoe, West Virginia would regain its footing en route to a 33 win season. It would be the fifth time in 10 attempts that Mazey’s group would hit that total or higher. It would set the table for a remarkable season in 2023. The Mountaineers would garner 40 wins for only the second time (the first was in 1994 by the late Dale Ramsburg) in program history. A 40 – 20 final record was accompanied by the hosting of an NCAA Regional and a tie for first place in the Big 12 regular season standings as the highlight of a record breaking year.
Mazey owns a 336 and 250 record in his 11 year term. He has been recognized as the coach of the year twice in 2019 and 2023. As impressive as the above-mentioned accomplishments are, they pale in comparison to the amount of players that have gone to the next level. Overall, 37 of his players have been selected in the MLB Draft and eight additional would ink undrafted free agent deals. He would love to see several more, but there is one in particular that he has his eye on. His son, Wammer Mazey, had previously committed to the Mountaineer program and he is set to graduate from Morgantown High in 2025. It’s another reason for Mazey to stick around town, and that would be the best news for the program.
