DeVries

DeVries comes from the Midwest, where he was born 49 years ago and recently was the six-year head coach at Drake in Des Moines, Iowa.

Drake had enjoyed little success until DeVries became coach. In his six seasons in Des Moines, the Bulldogs had at least 20 wins in all six of those seasons.

Drake was DeVries’ first job as a head coach. His teams reached three NCAA Tournaments and gave him a .732 lifetime winning percentage.

The three assistant coaches installed at WVU by DeVries are Chester Frazier (an assistant at Illinois in 2023-2024), Tom Ostrom (an assistant at Drake under DeVries) and Kory Barnett (an assistant at Nevada).

Sabins

West Virginia’s 2024-2025 schedule will have a different shade to it, now that the Big 12 Conference has a smattering of new teams for next season and both Texas and Oklahoma have left for the SEC. Arizona, Arizona State and Utah become the newest Big 12 members starting in 2024-2025.

Devries replaces interim head coach Josh Eilert, who inherited the thankless position just prior to the beginning of the 2023-2024 season.

The new coach signed a five-year contract.

Steve Sabins ascended to the head baseball position in a more tenable way. There was no turmoil to his taking the position.

Previous coach Randy Mazey announced he was going to retire upon the completion of the 2024 season. Sabins was anointed as his successor at the time of Mazey’s retirement announcement.

The incoming WVU head coach had been Mazey’s assistant for nine seasons and had gained the respect of the baseball community as well as the WVU sports organization/administration.

West Virginia University baseball had completed the 2023 season with a 40-20 record and received a bid to the NCAA baseball tournament. The 2024 team recorded a 36-24 record and also entered the NCAA tournament where it won a four-team Regional held in Tempe, Ariz. before falling in a two-team Super Regional — the final step before the annual College World Series.

Sabins will inherit a stadium in Granville that will have improvements for the 2025 season as well as a new indoor facility for hitting and pitching.

West Virginia’s Big 12 Conference schedule will also take into account the presence of Arizona State, Arizona and Utah as well as second-year members Central Florida, Cincinnati, Houston and Brigham Young.