The Charlottesville Tom Sox have named former Major League pitcher Randy Tomlin as the team’s head coach for the 2024 Valley Baseball League season. Joining Tomlin on the Tom Sox coaching staff will be former Division I head coach Scott Stricklin, former University of Virginia player Kenny Towns and current Mary Washington assistant coach Adam Dofflemyer. The Tom Sox will have one of the most experienced and high-level coaching staffs in all of collegiate summer baseball.
Tomlin joins the Tom Sox while serving as Head Coach at Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg, a position he has held since 2012. Under his leadership, Liberty Christian has been one of the most successful teams in the state of Virginia, winning two state titles (2017 & 2022) and numerous regional championships. The program has also produced three pro players – Wes Clarke, Zack Hess, and Tomlin’s son Quade – alongside several current and former collegiate players.
“I’m very happy to be able to coach the Sox this summer,” said Tomlin. “I think it’s a tremendous opportunity for myself to grow as a coach and with the staff that I have, to be able to learn more about the game while also helping the young men that are coming.”
Prior to joining the Bulldogs, Tomlin spent five seasons as a pitching coach in the Washington Nationals organization. During his time with the Single-A Potomac Nationals and Double-A Harrisburg Senators, Tomlin coached players including Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Drew Storen, and Ross Detwiler.
Tomlin enjoyed a five-year MLB career for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1990-1994, becoming the third Liberty player to appear in a major league game. Over 106 total appearances (94 starts), Tomlin had a 3.43 ERA, 297 strikeouts, and tossed eight complete games, including one in his MLB debut. He appeared in three NLCS games across the 1991 and 1992 seasons. He played his collegiate ball at Liberty, where he still ranks among the Top 10 in innings, complete games, shutouts, and strikeouts. He was inducted into the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
Stricklin most recently served 10 seasons as the head coach at the University of Georgia, where he led the Bulldogs to three NCAA Regional appearances and a 299-236-1 record from 2014-23. Throughout his ten seasons at Georgia, Stricklin revitalized the program, leading the Bulldogs back to the SEC Tournament for the first time in two years. Georgia captured top-10 national rankings in 2020 and 2021, alongside hosting an NCAA Regional for the first time in a decade in 2018 and following that up with a second-straight host in 2019. During the 2019 season, Georgia won 42 games – the fourth-most in school history – while placing two players on all major All-America lists.
Prior to his time at Georgia, Stricklin spent nine seasons as the Head Coach at his alma mater, Kent State. Stricklin led the Golden Flashes to five NCAA regionals, five MAC Tournament championships, and four MAC regular season titles. In 2012, he took Kent State to their first College World Series in program history, defeating 1-seed Florida before falling to eventual finalist South Carolina.
Stricklin will be joined in Charlottesville by his son Cale, a sophomore catcher at Auburn who will be a member of the Tom Sox roster this summer.
Towns joins the Tom Sox to begin his coaching career after an outstanding career as a third baseman at the University of Virginia.
Towns spent four seasons as an infielder for Brian O’Connor at the University of Virginia, manning the third base spot during Virginia’s back-to-back CWS Finals runs. He was a regular throughout his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons, starting 169 of the 179 games he played during that span, and appeared in a then-team record 33 NCAA Tournament games. He was named to the All-Regional team in all three of his final years and still ranks among UVA’s top 10 in games, RBI, doubles, and HBP.
Towns was drafted in the 20th round of the 2015 MLB Draft and spent two seasons in the Angels organization before playing three seasons in the independent Frontier League. Since the end of his playing career, he has remained in the Charlottesville area.
Dofflemyer joins the Tom Sox as the pitching coach for the 2024 season. Dofflemyer joins the Tom Sox while serving as an assistant for Division III Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, a position he has held since the fall of 2023.
Dofflemyer is in his first season as an assistant coach at Mary Washington. Mary Washington’s staff currently ranks among the best in D-III in ERA, WHIP and shutouts under Dofflemyer’s direction.
Dofflemyer pitched four seasons at the University of Lynchburg, playing for a program which was revitalized over the past seven years by head coach Lucas Jones. The Hornets had a winning record in three of Dofflemyer’s four seasons on the roster and set program strikeout records in his final two seasons on the staff. The 2021 and 2022 teams set program win records before being broken by last year’s National Championship team. Over his career, Dofflemyer had a 4.28 ERA in 61 innings, striking out 56 batters. He spent his freshman season at D-II King University in Bristol, Tenn.