21-8 was the final illuminated on the scoreboard as the Tom Sox walked off the field after dropping game two of the Valley League championship series. You could hear a pin drop in the dugout after the final out.
The final straggler, Randy Tomlin walked off of Purcellville’s Fireman’s Field with his hat contorted on his head.
In a profession where bombastic voices – oftentimes emotionally erratic – are the norm, Tomlin’s calm demeanor, even in the face of defeat, was a stark contrast.
That’s Tomlin, though, a head coach who is admittedly unorthodox.
“Obviously, I’m not a loud person,” Tomlin joked. “I’m experiential. I’ve been there, I know what they’re doing, I know what they’ve been through, and what it takes to get beyond where they’re at.”
The Bainbridge, Maryland native spent five years in MLB, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Over that span, Tomlin logged 580.1 innings with a 30-31 record, 3.43 career ERA, nearly 300 strikeouts, eight complete games, and three shutouts.
“It was absolutely great; it’s what you dream of as a little kid,” Tomlin said of his time in the major leagues. “I’m blessed to have made it there and to have fulfilled that dream.”
The passion and love Tomlin had for the game never faded, and while vying for a comeback in the late 1990’s, his inkling to take up coaching had gotten stronger.
“I thought about coaching growing up because I liked working with kids, so it was a thought, but I didn’t know if an opportunity would come of that,” he said.
Well, the opportunities were there. In 1997, Tomlin opted to turn the page on a playing career that had been derailed by injuries and return to his alma mater, Liberty University, as pitching coach.
“I felt that I wasn’t ready to coach because I had to go from playing to communicating what I know, what I’d learned, and what I’d experienced,” he said. “But, the opportunity to go to Liberty really helped to develop my philosophy and communication and it was really where I realized, ‘I can do this, and I like to do it.’”
After coaching for nine years at the same place where he once toed the rubber, Tomlin turned the page again. This time, it was a jump to the pros, serving as the pitching coach for both the Single-A and Double-A affiliates of the Washington Nationals. He’d develop future All-Stars like Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann, amongst others, during his five years with the organization.
Eventually, though, push came to shove.
“I loved being with the Nationals,” he said. “It was a great experience, but at home, some challenges had developed.”
Sitting on a dugout bench in the heat of the late June sun, Tomlin vulnerably recounted the situation his family, particularly his wife Janet, was going through at home. The couple had three young kids at the time: Ellie, Quade, and Coy; and struggles with Coy’s autism and Janet’s father passing began to wear on his wife. This, coupled with his career away from home, forced Ellie and Quade to – in his words – “grow up really fast.”
He had to make a decision which would shape the rest of his life: to come back home.
Tomlin turned the page; this time, flipping to one filled with two indelible fabrics of his life: his family and his faith. A devout Christian, he was given the chance to head up the program at Liberty Christian Academy (LCA), located right in his own backyard.
LCA Athletic Director Frank Rocco, a Pittsburgh native, was familiar with Tomlin well before he’d eventually work alongside him at LCA.
“I was a Randy Tomlin fan as a Pirates fan before I got to know Randy the man,” Rocco said. “Randy’s children were at LCA. So, when Randy was home, I would continue to see him and say, ‘Hey, when the time is right, we would love for you to come back and be a high school coach.’”
So, in 2012, the LCA baseball program was born – and with that, a plan that had been laid out by Tomlin, the academy’s founder Dr. Jerry Falwell, and Rocco for quite some time had come to fruition. While many coaches build their programs solely around the game of baseball, Tomlin wanted to build more than just a successful team on the field – he wanted to teach and build young men off the field as well.
“He spent a lot of time, focus, and effort not just training us for baseball, but also to be the best young men and Christian leaders possible,” recent graduate Braden Weaver said.
Weaver recalled a story where Tomlin’s calming presence helped guide him out of a slump and into a career milestone.
“It was our first game my junior year. Hitting-wise, I went up there and I was just not doing good. We were facing a really good pitcher – a Tennessee commit – and I just wasn’t having a good day at the plate. Everyone could tell I was visibly frustrated and expecting better things out of myself,” he said. “I came back in the dugout, and between innings, he came up to me and just told me: ‘Take a breath, get your foot down on time, hit the ball, and keep it simple.’ And then, in the next at-bat, I hit my first-ever home run on the high school-sized fields.”
Tomlin’s success in guiding young men in their faith and their most pivotal years of development is apparent, and it’s been matched with significant results on the diamond.
In 12 years, the Liberty Christian Bulldogs have been to ten Virginia state tournaments and won four state championships, becoming the only private school in Virginia to win multiple state championships at two different levels. At the same time, LCA has produced countless collegiate baseball players, including a few pros along the way.
Success has become the standard, and one that Rocco said has been fun to watch Tomlin build: “I’ve been able to be a fan, just as I was with the Pirates, as he coaches our baseball team, and he’s done a tremendous job every single year.”
Tomlin’s coaching job with LCA garnered the recognition of the Charlottesville Tom Sox, an elite summer collegiate team in Central Virginia, who tapped Tomlin as the franchise’s head coach in 2024. Although the job added another twist to Tomlin’s path, it allowed him to pursue a new opportunity for the summer while bringing his culture and values to Charlottesville.
Just like when he joined Liberty Christian, Tomlin brought his “family first” mentality to Charlottesville, with the entire Tomlin family becoming a staple for the Tom Sox – just as they have at every step of his career.
The “family first” culture began from the jump, as Randy’s son Coy was named an honorary coach for the season. Coy was no stranger to the game, having been a part of plenty of squads Randy fielded at LCA.
“I’ve known Coy since I was eight years old, from when we used to sit up on the hill and yell at the players during practice. I’ve really grown up with him there at the baseball field, and it’s never a dull moment with him,” Weaver said.
“The best part is, and a lot of the guys who’ve been on the team can attest, he just keeps things light, and he is always a joy to be around. He brings just a special kind of light to a team.”
For kids and adults with autism, that level of interaction might not be something they’d be particularly comfortable with, Randy recalled. That’s far from the case with Coy, however.
“He wants so badly to participate, but this is the next best thing because he gets to give all the players his signs and tips, and for me it’s really nice because he’s in my hip pocket everywhere I go,” Tomlin said.
It was fitting that as the Tom Sox won their fourth title in franchise history, flipping the script on the previous day’s defeat, Coy was the first to hoist the trophy. Randy soaked in the moment, taking pictures on his phone and fully embracing his son’s never-ending jubilance.
Yet again, Tomlin was the last straggler. This time, though, he was sitting in the dugout with his arm around his son, beaming with a smile on his face.
