On April 10th, 2015, the West Virginia Mountaineers defeated the Butler Bulldogs after 13 innings in the inaugural game held at Monongalia County Ballpark. Over a decade later, the $21 million facility has been the home of WVU baseball and the West Virginia Black Bears, serving as a fortress of success for both teams. Read More: 10 Years of Kendrick Family Ballpark
A State-of-the-Art Facility
Upon completion of the project, the ever-impressive Monongalia County Ballpark became the new home for the Mountaineers, as WVU aimed to move out of Hawley Field. The “second” Hawley Field was the home of the Mountaineers from 1968 until 2014, only holding 1,500 spectators. Change was needed. The Big 12 Conference required bigger and more up-to-date facilities for WVU to be considered a proper competitor of a program.
Flash forward to the 2015 season and Monongalia County Ballpark became the new home for the old gold and blue. The baseball complex featured a capacity of 3,500 and surrounding facilities that are arguably on-par with some in the major leagues.
A House Built On Success
Both the Mountaineers and Black Bears have had their fair share of success in the past decade at the ballpark, including conference titles and league championships.
WVU is coming off its first outright Big 12 regular season title in program history in 2025 and back-to-back trips to the NCAA Super Regional round. Their success is in part to defending the home turf. The Mountaineers finished 17-6 and 17-7 at home in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
Beyond the past two seasons, WVU has had an overwhelmingly successful home record within the confines of the park. Since the opening of the complex, the Mountaineer baseball team has held a home record of 162-80, winning nearly 67% of their games at the venue.
Related: WVU Alumni Spotlight: JJ Quinerly
Word Gets Out
The arrival of a professional-quality baseball venue in Granville, West Virginia, brought more to the town than just a place for WVU to call its own. The Johnstown Jammers of the New York-Penn League announced in August 2014 that the team would be relocated to West Virginia.
This led to the arrival of the West Virginia Black Bears. The Black Bears were a Class A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2015 to 2020, before joining the MLB Draft League. Since the reorganization of the minor leagues, the Black Bears brought home back-to-back Draft League titles in 2022 and 2023.
From “The Mon” to “The Ken”
For the majority of the decade that the ballpark has been around, it was known as the Monongalia County Ballpark. The name did not change to Kendrick Family Ballpark until March 2024, when WVU alumnus and owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ken Kendricks, made a large donation to the program. The long-winded full title of the venue as it stands today is Wagener Field at Kendrick Family Ballpark at the Monongalia County Baseball Complex.
The donation from Kendricks primarily went toward the new WVU Baseball Biomechanics and Performance Center, a building directly adjacent to the ballpark. With continuous updates in and around Kendrick Family Ballpark, the venue continues to rise as one of the top spots in college baseball. Millions of dollars and hundreds of games later, Kendrick Family Ballpark continues to be one of the premier sports hubs in the region.
While the WVU baseball season is in the books, Black Bears baseball is in full swing up until early September. If you do not have a chance to make it out to the ballpark this summer before the end of its 10th anniversary season, keep up with Black Bears coverage right here at WV Sports Nation.
