Granville, West Virginia – I have a feeling we're not at Hawley Field anymore
It's not exactly Judy Garland's famous line, but she might feel compelled to say it if she were in Granville today.
The stadium formerly known as Monongalia County Ballpark received an off-season facelift in the form of a brand new playing surface. Now, the home stadium of West Virginia's decade-old baseball program has a new name.
As announced Thursday, the home of the Mountaineers will henceforth be known as Wagener Field at Kendrick Family Ballpark at the Monongalia County Baseball Complex. The name change comes as part of a generous gift from WVU alumnus Ken Kendrick, owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks and longtime supporter of WVU athletics.
The gift comes with funding for a new, state-of-the-art indoor training facility. Construction is expected to be completed by February 2025. When asked about the future stadium for West Virginia University baseball players, Randy Mazzie and pitcher Aidan Major both had the same four-word answer:
“It means the world.”
Both the pitching and hitting areas inside the new 8,200-square-foot building will be equipped with Trackman technology. This has become a useful tool for teams at the professional level of the sport, as well as at the highest levels of college baseball.
It is believed that only a few collegiate programs across the country have a facility like the one West Virginia University will have. Wake Forest is the most prominent example. The Demon Deacons pitching lab has gained acclaim from coast to coast and has transformed Wake Forest into one of the premier programs in the sport. Mazzie took a close-up look at the famous pitching lab during the NCAA Regional Tournament in 2017.
“[Wake Forest head coach Tom Walters] He showed me their lab and what they do, and now we're going to get what they have. “Seven years later, look where the Wake Forest program is because of this,” Mazzie said. “Hopefully, seven years from now, you'll be talking about West Virginia baseball like people talk about Wake Forest baseball now. That's the plan moving forward.”
Given the young age of the 2024 Mountaineer baseball team, many players on the current roster will directly benefit from the new building. Major, a rookie, is expected to be of use for one season at most.
Residents of Mill Hall, Pennsylvania are familiar with programs that have this type of facility available to them. He also believes the new building for his program could make a big impact.
“I think the indoor facility and everything that comes with it is going to take this program and this team to a whole other level,” Major said after striking out eight batters in eight innings of work in the first 12 games of the season. Thursday. “I think it's going to come as a big surprise to a lot of people, honestly. I really do.”
In the preseason, Mazzie said people surrounding college baseball believed the West Virginia University baseball program was a “sleeping giant” waiting to be awakened. It's part of what interested him about the job. The new stadium 10 years ago was the giant alarm clock. There are hopes that the next addition to this indoor training area will be a dose of supercharged caffeine.
“It seems like we're a thing or two away from being one of those programs that's on the national level,” Major added. “I think we're about to be in that conversation. I think we're a good year or two away. It might be this facility, who knows?”
According to Mazi, this project has been underway for some time. The veteran Mountaineer baseball coach has built a strong friendship with Kendrick since he first took over the program in 2013.
Of course, two years later, Mazzei helped usher in a new era of baseball at WVU with the opening of Monongalia County Ballpark. West Virginia's new headquarters immediately helped take the program to another level — evidenced by a return to the NCAA Tournament and an immediate increase in recruiting, even before the first game was played there.
A new indoor training facility could have the same effect.
“Special thanks to Ken for doing this. His vision for the future of Mountaineer baseball matches mine, matches Rick Wagner's vision, matches Oliver Luck and Kelly Zane's vision,” Mazzei added. “Without people like that, you can't function. This is what it takes. It takes the Ken Kendricks of the world, and the Rick Wagoners of the world, to achieve this goal. “But when this thing is over, it’s going to be something special.”
