MORGANTOWN – Morgantown High School baseball head coach Pat Sherald earned his 100th victory as head coach of the program.
In his fifth full season at the helm of the MHS baseball team (no games were played in 2020), Sherald surpassed the century mark for wins on April 4 with a 7-2 victory over Washington. Sherald has averaged 23.5 wins per season over the last four seasons, with 94 wins during that time (according to MaxPreps). The highest single-season win total was 29 in 2024, when the Mohigans made a run to the state tournament in Charleston.
Coach Sherald says the accomplishment wouldn’t be possible without the players and people surrounding him.
“It’s certainly a testament to the group of guys we’ve had over the past few years that have made this possible,” he said. “I honestly didn’t even realize that I had reached that number. One of our assistant coaches figured that out, and we certainly celebrated the accomplishment a little.”
While winning is certainly a goal for Sherald and his staff, he says he takes more pride in his and his staff’s perspective on the mentorship of their players.
“The passion and love we have to develop these young men and mentor them in the way we do is what I love most about our coaching staff,” Sherald said. “I’m just proud of our program that we can do that. On top of that, when we play one of the hardest schedules in the state, that’s also something we are proud of when it comes to challenging ourselves.”
That challenge, year in and year out, has helped Sherald and his staff build Morgantown baseball into a successful team and a winning program.
“That’s exactly what we think of it as; a program,” Sherald said. “We want to bring kids in and truly develop them, and some of these kids don’t see a ton of innings before their junior or senior years, but they stay positive and find a way to take advantage of an opportunity. Our guys buy into that mentality of working while you wait. The foundation has been laid with those first few groups we had here that just went about their business and won games the right way.”
MHS has had some impactful senior classes graduate in Sherald’s time as head coach. This season, while his upperclassmen are undoubtedly talented, the Mohigans have enjoyed how their younger players have helped the team succeed so far.
“There’s been a few times this year I’ve looked out from the dugout and realized I have three, four, five, freshmen and sophomores out there at one time,” he said. “That’s a little new to us, but having that balance among the roster is cool. Top to bottom, we have been productive from our senior class to the freshmen class, and anytime you have that, you certainly see the future for success being a little clearer, as long as those guys continue to work hard and strive to reach their goals. They have the mentality that they need to do it as freshmen, so it isn’t like we need to rewrite the script or anything. Their identity as workers and competitors speaks for itself. We take the way we treat our guys seriously, that’s just the culture of our program.”
