A familiar face within the WVU Baseball program finally began his surge into the public eye on Friday, as Steve Sabins officially addressed the media for the first time as head coach.
Sabins, who has been with the Mountaineers as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, takes the reigns from Randy Mazey. In 12 seasons with WVU, Mazey led the program to its first four NCAA Tournament appearances in the 21st century, its first Big 12 regular season championship, and, most recently, its first super regional berth.
Mazey earned Sabins’ thanks at his introduction on Friday, as Sabins highlighted his gratitude for the chance Mazey took on him as a young coach. With that, Sabins expressed his excitement to stay with the program he helped build for the better part of a decade by Mazey’s side and thanked Wren Baker for the chance he took by appointing him head coach a year before Mazey’s retirement.
While Mazey certainly helped Sabins reach this pivotal moment in his career, though, he also unintentionally brings plenty of pressure to the first-time head coach, due to the program’s recent success. Having helped reach those heights, though, Sabins is more than happy to tackle WVU’s new expectations head on.
“I’m not ignorant to expectations,” Sabins said. “To cower in the face of new expectations would be silly. At this point, I helped create them, and so I got to just keep making sure that bar is rising over the course of my tenure here.”
While high expectations carry over from last season, much of Sabins’ roster will as well, barring the departure of some players eligible for the MLB Draft. Due to the NCAA’s transfer portal deadline taking place before the draft, some acquired transfers are also not guaranteed for next season.
Nevertheless, much of WVU’s outfield and top of the batting order is expected to return for next season. One spot that will surely have a new look, though, is Sabins’ starting pitching rotation.
“We have some holes with starting pitching,” Sabins acknowledged. “We have to bring in some new players to fill some holes, but I think what we’re really counting on is that we had an unbelievable group of sophomore pitchers that showed flashes of brilliance for us.”
“It’s their turn to be able to take our program somewhere special,” Sabins said.
On the field, WVU’s coaching will look very different without Mazey, who Sabins called the most active on-field coach in the country. To fill that presence, Sabins will be trusting his team of assistants to split roles with him and maximize the knowledge of the staff.
“I’m going to stay at third base just to keep some normalcy with what we have done,” Sabins said. “I’ll run the offense in the third base box.”
“Coach (Justin) Oney is going to call pitches. He’s our pitching coach, so I feel passionately about that. The guy that’s in the bullpen every day, watching the pitchers, spending time with the pitchers, recruiting pitchers, I want him to have a really good pulse on that and to call pitches.”
Also staying in place from the Mazey era is coach Jacob Garcia, who Sabins anticipates remaining at first base. Rounding out the coaching staff will be a new bullpen coach, who will be part of a process Sabins says he is continuously tinkering with.
In addition to his on-field duties, Sabins will still be helping with recruiting. He will be taking control of the transfer portal while coach Garcia targets the high schoolers as the team’s recruiting coordinator.
Recruiting is a passion that Sabins learned to have after Mazey granted him his first opportunity on the staff, and now, the competitive nature of it keeps him wanting more.
Possibly Sabins’ best resume booster on the recruiting side of his career is his recruitment of JJ Wetherholt, the projected first overall pick in the upcoming MLB Draft.
Wetherholt’s stock out of Mars, Pa. had him just 30th in the state before his signing with WVU before it grew rapidly as he earned Big 12 Player of the Year honors as a sophomore. While finding another diamond in the rough to this degree is unlikely, it will not keep Sabins and his staff enthusiastic about trying as he transitions to head coach.
“I love the chase. I like convincing people that this is the best university on earth,” Sabins said.
Steve Sabins and the Mountaineers will look to prove that on and off the field this upcoming season, as they ride the momentum of one of the greatest seasons in program history. The new era under Steve Sabins kicks off July 5 with the construction of WVU’s new practice facility, which is expected to be done by December.
Photo by Wesley Shoemaker, Blue Gold Sports
