West Virginia head coach Steve Sabins experienced a historic first season as head coach. Now, he will be looking to build upon that following his first year at the helm.
West Virginia baseball set records this season. They won the most games ever in the regular season, the most games ever in a total season, won the first outright Big 12 regular season title, and got the Mountaineers back to the Super Regionals for the second time ever.
"I would like to congratulate Coach Sabins and West Virginia on an outstanding season. He's a star. He's one of the best coaches in college baseball now, in his first season. If you're buying stock in a program, buy it in West Virginia," LSU head coach Jay Johnson said after his Tigers dispatched the Mountaineers on Sunday.
Sabins and the Mountaineers finished the 2025 campaign with 44 wins, the most by any West Virginia team ever. Three of those wins came after WVU swept through the Clemson Regional, as Sabins said the Mountaineers had arrived in the upper echelon of college baseball teams following the regional win.
Sabins has seen West Virginia's full development as a baseball program.
He was under Randy Mazey, who retired following the 2024 season, and this year marked just the second time in program history that the Mountaineers had made three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
"It's not what we've done over the last two years. I think there was a massive transition in our program when Coach Mazey took over the program 13, 14, 15 years ago. I've been in the program now for 10 years, and so what we were able to do this season is a compilation of effort for me over the last decade and for Coach Mazey over the last 15 years," Sabins said.
Over the last decade, Sabins and Mazey, among others, have been able to turn West Virginia into a true baseball school.
It started in 2017 with their first regional appearance, followed by hosting for the first time in 2019. Then in the last half-decade, WVU has two Big 12 regular season titles and three NCAA Tournament appearances.
"The program, when Coach Mazzie took over, hadn't been to a regional in 18 to 19 years, and when I got there, hadn't made a regional in 20 years. We broke through in 2017 with the first regional in 21 seasons, and so the snapshot of the last two years for me is not accurate. Although they've been the most successful two years in program history, it's been a lot of work by a lot of people and a lot of great players over the course of 10 or 15 years," Sabins said.
Compare WVU to a program like LSU, who the Mountaineers lost to, and they're trying to play catch up in a big way.
LSU is making their 20th College World Series appearance after beating the Mountaineers, something West Virginia has still never done.
"In the last 10 years, there's probably not more growth, it's been exponential growth, the success of our program over the last decade, probably more than any program in the nation," Sabins said.
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