By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

The total number of ejections during NCAA baseball games is now bordering on the ridiculous.

According to George Drouches, NCAA National Coordinator of Umpires, the total number of ejections has gone up each of the past four years with 90 percent directly related to profanity, according to ejection reports he has received.

Incredibly, total ejections have gone up by 200 since 2015.

Here are the dismal year-by-year numbers:

• 2018: 858 total ejections.
• 2017: 708 total ejections.
• 2016: 692 total ejections.
• 2015: 658 total ejections.

The biggest 1-year jump was 2017-2018 with 150 more ejections.

What shocks us at Collegiate Baseball is that coaches continue to be tossed at a record pace despite receiving a mandatory warning from umpires now.

Popular causes for ejections include ball/strike, safe/out and fair/foul — with ball/strike as the main cause of being tossed.

If that wasn’t enough, Drouches said that over the past two seasons, 65 fight ejections have been handed down by umpires in NCAA Divisions I, II and III baseball games.

In 2018, 35 took place while 30 occurred in 2017.

We have no problems with coaches arguing with umpires over blown calls. But we feel it should be done in a civilized manner without dropping expletives every other word and getting in the face of umpires.

We have rarely met an umpire who didn’t love the game of baseball and did his job to the best of his ability. Many are former baseball players who love the sport.

Respect is a word that is sorely needed in the game with coach/umpire relations. And it goes both ways.

At the core of many ejections are ball/strike calls. This can be solved by having the entire strike zone called with consistency which is defined in the NCAA Baseball Rule book and has a graphic as well showing what to call.

Yet so many umpires have their own unique zone. Some have peanut size strike zones which frustrates pitching coaches, pitchers and catchers. Then you have the other extreme with extra wide zones that cause the blood to boil with hitting coaches and hitters.

That is why consistently calling one, defined strike zone should be mandatory in the game. If an umpire doesn’t care to do this, he shouldn’t be working.

The best umpire we have ever seen was the late Bud Grainger of Tucson, Ariz. He spent the vast majority of his life umpiring baseball games on the NCAA Division I level. He hustled after foul balls that were within 10-15 feet of him.

He never baited a coach into a verbal fight when he blew a call. Instead, he would admit that he made a mistake which shocked more than one coach during his career. The typical response from a coach was for him to be better next time. The argument was over.

The art of defusing potential ejections should be a part of what umpires learn.

Because of this climate in the game, a powerful addition to the Fight Rule by the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee was proposed and later put on hold by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel this summer. All of college baseball should strive to lower the ejection numbers we currently have.

This article appeared in the Oct. 5, 2018 edition of Collegiate Baseball. To purchase the entire issue or subscribe, CLICK HERE.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Practicing at game speed has been an integral part of Ron Polk’s Hall of Fame coaching career.

The former Mississippi State baseball head coach is the winningest coach in any sport in the history of the Southeastern Conference.

He enters his 10th season as Alabama Birmingham’s volunteer assistant coach.

Polk retired from Mississippi State in 2008, following his 29th season at the school. He currently ranks 14th all-time in NCAA coaching victories with 1,373.

“The basic concept of game speed practice is something that everyone should do in all sports,” said Polk.

“And that is to have your practices structured like you play in a game and practice at game speed. When players get physically and mentally tired, you stop whether it be playing defense, hitting or any other aspect of the game.

“That is why we only allow our hitters to take six or seven cuts at a time in any station. In a game, you won’t have 25 cuts in a row unless you foul off a lot of pitches. We give them breaks. We tell them when you get tired, stop. If you are going full speed, you will be better prepared. It doesn’t matter what hitting station the player is at. We want every hitter to wear a helmet every time he hits in any fashion as well. If he doesn’t, it is not the same as in a game.

“The same thing goes for defense. Each player will only get five or six ground balls in one sequence. Baseball is a game played in spurts. So we practice in spurts just like a game.

“If you don’t go full speed in practice and then go all out in a game, you will have a hard time adjusting to real game conditions.

“We try to simulate bunt defenses, double steal defenses and pickoff plays. We have our own signal system which all the players go through. We have a wipe off signal. If we are going through bunt defenses and double steal defenses, I will locate myself in the dugout just like in a ball game. We try to have runners on base. We try to make everything in practice as game like as we can.

“You obviously won’t have umpires out there or have game uniforms on and you don’t have big crowds in the stands. But you try to simulate what games will be like.

“The same thing is true with scrimmage games. You try to simulate situations in a game. When a guy makes a play in a ball game, you want him to feel good about himself because he has made that same play over and over again at game speed in practices.

“Where coaches run into a problem is where a player don’t feel comfortable because he says to himself, ‘I have done it a couple of times but don’t feel confident because I haven’t done it over and over again.’ Baseball is a game of repetition.

“The other thing is that we try to practice things which happen over and over again in games. You can spend time on things that don’t happen often, but not as much as the normal plays you see all the time. The things we work on all the time are bunt defenses, fly balls, communication on popups, ground ball communication with balls in the 6-hole and 4-hole, cutoffs, relays, tandem double cuts, players who go to the wall, picking up ground balls.

“Other areas include fly balls over a shoulder or the do or die play on the infield. Spend a lot of time on the basic, routine plays rather than spending a lot of time on rundowns and backhand plays in the hole by the shortstop which will happen once a year as he gets the guy out at first base.”

To read more of this article, purchase the Oct. 5, 2018 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.

Coach Polk also talks about the value of precision practice planning, the value of homework assignments for players, why players have two playbooks and why game-speed practices pay off big in games. He also delves into why virtually all running is done on the bases and not in the outfield or from foul pole to foul pole and why coaches rarely talk to each other in practice. In addition, Coach Polk discusses the problem of base running during pre-game batting practice because it never is done at game speed. So why do it? Polk also talks about penalty rounds in hitting with his players so they stay much more focused and special pitching counts to work on with hitters, plus more.

Ron Polk’s Baseball Playbook

The best book ever written on coaching baseball was compiled by Ron Polk many years ago called the Baseball Playbook. It features 520 pages of instruction and costs $30. Go to the following web site: www.thebaseballplaybook.com for more information.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

DECORAH, Iowa — One of the greatest high school baseball coaches in history recently retired in Dennis Olejniczak.

The head coach of Decorah High School (Decorah, Iowa) posted the second highest win total in United States history for a high school baseball coach with 1,417 victories.

He was the head coach at Decorah High School for 55 years and led teams to three state titles, nine title games, 11 state tournament appearances and 21 Northeast Iowa Conference championships. He also coached for one year at Janesville H.S. (Lansing, Iowa).

Olejniczak is only behind Gene Schultz of Kee H.S. (Lansing, Iowa) for the most wins in high school baseball history at 1,578.

Collegiate Baseball caught up with this giant in the coaching ranks and asked him to explain his fabulous system.

One of the keys to his success was working with Little League players in his town so they were well versed on great baseball fundamentals prior to coming to Decorah H.S.

“In the summer of 1964, I took on the job of being director of Decorah’s Little League program,” said the 78-year-old Olejniczak.

“I decided that we would treat anybody who ever showed up as fairly as we could. It didn’t matter to us if they didn’t have a mom, dad or brothers and sisters who could play some ball with them. Everyone was given an opportunity to learn and improve in the great game of baseball.

“Everyone was taught the same way as we had an 8-9-10 year age group and 11-12-13 division. We always had a draft of only Decorah, Iowa kids, and we tried to make sure every team had the same amount of talent. None of the teams actually had coaches like you typically see on Little League teams.

“We had three coaches during each game which covered both teams involved. And every coach had to be approved by me and was usually someone who was involved with the Decorah H.S. baseball team. That way, all the coaches were all on the same page.

“We would stop each game multiple times when teaching points were needed. It might be a great play or one where some problem took place. We weren’t caught up on wins and losses. We focused on the development of these kids.

“Eight year old kids were taught that pitches over the plate from the knees to the arm pits were strikes they would swing at. If a pitch was not in that area, they wouldn’t swing at it. This taught the kids immediately what a strike zone was. We emphasized that in the game of baseball, you get three strikes. So if a pitch was in the strike zone, we wanted them attacking pitches with their swing and being very aggressive.

“Yet, we wanted them to be disciplined and not swing at pitches outside the strike zone. The word discipline was learned by these young players at eight years old. In order to have some predictability, you have to learn discipline in hitting.

“Sometimes 8-year-olds were totally overmatched in games by 10-year-old pitchers. There were times when the 8-year-old didn’t even foul off a ball for the first three weeks during the season. But when that person did foul off a ball, we stopped the game to praise him for a job well done. Then he might hit a ball fair a few at-bats later, and we would make a point of this as well.”

Incredible Teaching
Olejniczak said there were not a lot of practices because the lion’s share of instruction was done during games.

“Here is an example. Typically the best players on a team were the pitchers. He might go back on a popup and catch a ball that is near the second baseman. It was really the second baseman’s ball. So we would stop the game and point this out. We would explain that baseball is a team game. You must trust the second baseman to handle his part of the defenders on the field.

“When teaching moments took place, both teams came over to listen and learn. Sometimes we wouldn’t only verbally correct a situation but walk through the situation properly. The kids were very tolerant because games were stopped quite often. They knew it would be that way and listened well. If that situation came up down the road, the kids on this team typically performed better. We also reminded kids that there were different ways to teach different fundamentals. What we were teaching was one of the percentage ways of having success on a situation.”

Olejniczak said that in the youngest group, none of the players were allowed to be catchers.

“One of our helpers was the catcher for both teams. That person had gone through our high school program and knew the fundamentals well. In typical Little League games of this age, every other ball gets past the catcher as runners move up another base. And it doesn’t serve any function. The extra man was now a fourth outfielder on these young teams which allowed games to move on.

“Having a catcher who was a little bit more skilled like this allowed runners to be thrown out which is more realistic in games.”

Olejniczak said that 11 players were on each team, and many times they batted 1-11 so everyone got got an opportunity to bat.

“You will always have more advanced players. But those players who were less skilled weren’t automatically the 10th and 11th batters. If kids came to two consecutive games, they would be assured of starting the next game. We wanted every kid to feel like a starter which also helped their development. They felt like they were an important part of the team. Kids don’t have to be there when it is 90 degrees outside with high humidity. They can be at the swimming pool.

“If kids are out there supporting their team, we rewarded them. This set the tone with all the kids that they will only be successful if they are truly a team player.”

Olejniczak said the community backed the Little League program with great attendance day after day.

“Nobody was caught up in wins and losses. We didn’t publish the league standings. We didn’t have uniforms. We did have identity caps and T-shirts that local businesses paid for so each team had a similar look. We also encouraged kids not to wear shorts because sliding would cause injury problems.”

Olejniczak said that when he was involved in Little League, the kids really got to know him which helped as they developed and ultimately came to Decorah High School.

“When I retired from public education in 1999, I also stopped working with Little League kids. And I didn’t know the kids as well who were coming into our high school program as I did in the past. I found those kids who went through our Little League program learned a lot about baseball and were well schooled in fundamentals when they started school ball in the eighth grade. And that was a big asset.”

To read more of this article, purchase the Oct. 5, 2018 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.

The rest of the story delves into Coach Olejniczak’s unique pitching, hitting and defensive systems at Decorah High School and why hustle was mandatory with his teams. He also explains one of the greatest qualities his teams had as they never gave up in games despite the score. The mindset they had was to find a way to win.

By PERRY HUSBAND
Special To Collegiate Baseball

PALMDALE, Calif. — I have always been fascinated by hitting things a long way. 

As a kid, I had many long bombs winning game 7 of the World Series with a bottom of the ninth homer that was really a rock clearing the neighbor’s fence off my broom handle bat. 

As a college player trying to figure things out, I was in search of hitting the baseball harder, with marginal success in power. 

Later as a golf professional, I worked on my third quest of crushing the ball. 

As I learned how each movement of the body affected the distance, I often hit three jumbo buckets (about 1,000 range balls) a night in search of that feeling of ‘striping it’. 

The essence of hitting a ball perfect was now my obsession. 

There are only nine possible ball flights, and these simple facts of physics rule over all golf swing issues. 

In other words, you can watch the ball flight and reverse engineer what the club did and eventually, what the golfer did. 

In fact, I was not approved as a golf teaching professional until I could perform all nine of these ball flights on demand. 

This took quite a while to perfect, but in doing so, I learned how ball flight tells volumes about the swing mechanics.

I also understood what body movements caused those different ball flights. 

At the time, baseball did not approach the swing through science. 

I never really learned to hit a baseball until after I spent five years teaching the golf swing. 

I was puzzled because no one ever explained the baseball swing as golf had done it. 

Stretch the right rubber bands in the body, and you immediately see extra yardage. 

Turn better and you add distance with less effort. 

In baseball, whoever was the leading hitter, everyone copied his swing and that was the most efficient swing that month. 

This is at least one reason why it has taken so long to get to the bottom of the science of hitting a baseball. 

While I loved playing golf, teaching golf was not in my blood. 

Eventually, I found my way back to baseball and immediately began implementing the precision of the golf swing into diagnosing the baseball swing. 

I know many coaches do not see how close the golf swing and baseball swing actually are, but hopefully this will help clear up some of that. 

In golf, they measure everything, including launch angle, attack angle, club head speed, club head direction before impact and in some sophisticated test sites, such as the Titleist Performance Institute, they take measurement to a whole new level. 

When I began studying the baseball swing seriously, baseball had nothing close to the tools golf had. 

We had only a radar gun and that could only measure tee exit velocity. 

We could not get an exit velocity of a pitched ball. So we had to improvise for measuring live swings. Now there is no longer that issue. You can measure virtually everything in baseball.

Does this mean we have answered every question on what swing mechanics hit the ball the farthest and most often? 

Not even close. 

There are still arguments in every aspect of this most complex act of hitting a pitched baseball.

We still argue about mechanics because the complexity of the act allows a lot of less than efficient movements to have success. 

Hitters with less than efficient swing mechanics can put together a good season, and we are back to square one. 

Golf is too precise to allow this to happen, and we are only dealing with body timing rather than both pitch timing and body timing in baseball. 

If Jack Nicholas had a major inefficiency in his swing, he simply would never have won consistently. 

This is why some golfers play for 30 years and are still 30 handicaps. 

In baseball, a hitter can be terribly late, hit the ball at 50 percent of his max exit velocity and flare a double just over the first baseman to win a game. 

Terribly inefficient, yet a hero that we try to copy. 

This is all ok until it comes to adding the word ‘science’ to it. 

There is an exact metric for every aspect of how well a ball is hit.

We just choose to ignore that, as long as we win the game. 

Taking Swing’s Vital Signs
Before we go any further, let’s take your swing’s vital signs. 

Just like a visit to your doctor or you golf pro, the first step is to get a baseline set of numbers to see if your swing is healthy. 

How hard do you hit it? 

How often do you hit it hard? 

How close to perfect is your launch angle? 

Which launch angle is best for your individual makeup? 

How strong are you at the moment of impact? 

How well do you repeat your swing? 

How close to perfect is your timing (yes, even off the tee, timing is a thing)? 

To answer these questions, we have to measure the swing output in some very simple tests.

What does exit velocity actually tell us about the swing? 

Having introduced this idea of using swing output data to diagnose swings to the public with the Hitting Is A Guess video, my thoughts were that it was raw power. 

Off the tee, with no help from the pitch, hitters can measure their ability to create hard contact. 

Max tee exit velocity is what the hitter produces without the additional help from the pitch. 

Average tee exit velocity is a metric to determine how close to 100 percent the hitter can perform at. 

This is a fantastic start that all hitters should test. 

If your swing isn’t efficient off the tee, it is highly unlikely that it will operate efficiently with multiple pitch speeds in game situations. 

It is possible to have a better game swing than tee swing, but I have found that the tee data always correlates in multiple ways. 

When we begin testing live pitch exit velocity, the water gets muddy.  

Some hitters are slower reacting but have a great swing plane that stays in line with the pitch longer. 

Others have incredible hand eye coordination, allowing them to make contact with very suspect mechanics. 

The truth is, there are many combinations of skills that can help hitters have success, depending on your definition of success. 

For some, hitting .300 is everything. 

For others, elevate and celebrate at all costs. 

Yet others walk their way to a high on base percentage and they are treated as today’s non-hitting heroes. 

For me, I want every hitter to reach their maximum level of swing efficiency. 

To read more of this article, purchase the Oct. 5, 2018 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.

Perry Husband delves into his tee exit velocity and target test with four important scores to look at, the heavy ball test, why the lead arm can give a hitter more power, the difference between pulling the bat into action and pushing it and why this is vital for faster ball exit speeds. Plus, Perry delves into heavy ball training, why hitting is about how well you miss hit the ball far more than it is about perfect contact and how to perform live BP tests and what they show.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

INDIANAPOLIS — The highest amount of strikeouts over the past 49 years of NCAA Division I baseball took place during the 2018 season, according to the NCAA Division I Baseball Statistics Trends report.

Compiled by Jeff Williams, Associate Director of Media Coordination and Statistics with the NCAA, the 2018 NCAA Division I Strikeouts Per 9 Innings per game for each team was a record 7.88.

Each of the last four years have featured strikeout numbers that have gone over 7.00 which has never happened before in the past 49 years.

The strikeout average per 9 innings the last four years include:

2015: 7.02
2016: 7.17
2017: 7.54
2018: 7.88

Interestingly, the first year of the flat-seam ball was in 2015, the first year of this trend, and strikeout numbers have gone up every year since.

So there may be a correlation with the ball that is being used.

Fred Corral, pitching coach at the University of Missouri, had some interesting observations on why the strikeout numbers are at an all-time high.

Corral has 25 years of coaching experience across all levels of baseball, 12 of them in the Southeastern Conference and three in professional baseball.

“The strikeout numbers are surprising but not totally unexpected,” said Corral

“When the flat-seam ball came out, I was very excited. People told me it would go further than the raised-seam ball. I said it might, but hitting is still tough. What the flat-seam ball did was allow the break on balls to be shorter and less recognizable to hitters.

“I believe with more power arms in college baseball now, the break on pitches is not only shorter but later. Hitters are having a difficult time picking up the break of pitches with this late, shorter break.”

But there also could be other factors involved, including velocity improvement programs for pitchers that has allowed pitchers to throw harder than ever before.

To read more of this story, purchase the Oct. 5, 2018 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Louisiana State landed the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation, according to Collegiate Baseball’s 2018 evaluation of NCAA Division I baseball classes.

It marks the Tigers’ fifth national recruiting title after also landing top classes in 2014, 2010, 2007 and 2004 by Collegiate Baseball.

This is the ninth time in the last 10 years that a Southeastern Conference team has won the recruiting championship.

It is the 36th straight year Collegiate Baseball has evaluated NCAA Division I recruiting classes.

The Tigers landed an impressive haul of 16 newcomers that features seven drafted players.

Six were drafted last June while another was chosen in the 2017 MLB Draft.

The players include:

• RHP Landon Marceaux (Destrehan H.S., LA), 37th round Yankees.
• RHP Cole Henry (Florence H.S., AL), 38th round Detroit.
• C C.J.Willis (Ruston H.S., LA), 39th round Tampa Bay.
• RHP Jaden Hill (Ashdown H.S., AR), 38th round St. Louis.
• OF Giovanni DiGiacomo (Canterbury H.S., Naples, FL), 29th Pittsburgh.
• LHP Easton McMurray (Liberty H.S., Bakersfield, CA), 37th round Colorado.
• C Saul Garza (Howard J.C., TX), 31st round in 2017 St. Louis

Other superb members of this class include:

• 1B Cade Beloso (John Curtis H.S., New Orleans, LA), Gatorade Player of The Year in Louisiana.
• INF Drew Bianco (Oxford H.S.,MS), 5A Player of The Year in Mississippi.
• RHP Chase Costello (Pompano Beach H.S., FL), H.S. All-American.
• INF Gavin Dugas (Houma Christian H.S., LA), H.S. All-American.
• RHP Aaron George (San Jacinto J.C., TX), All-Conference.
• RHP Will Ripoll (John Curtis H.S., New Orleans, LA), H.S. All-American.

“This is a great class,” said LSU Assistant Coach Nolan Cain.

“We could not be more excited with the way the draft worked out and with the players we have coming in.

“We had quite a few draft risks in this class and were very excited with the outcome of only two signing (Brice Turang 1st round and Levi Kelly 8th round). We were able to land three catchers in this class, which was a very important position in our program to upgrade and improve.

“We landed nine high level arms. Out of the top three, we were hoping to get one, and we got all three.”

A complete rundown on the top 25 recruiting classes is featured in the Oct. 5 issue of Collegiate Baseball.

To purchase the Oct. 5, 2018 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe, CLICK HERE.

2018 NCAA Div. I Recruiting Results
By Collegiate Baseball

1. Louisiana St.
2. Vanderbilt
3. Arizona
4. Louisville
5. Florida
6. Florida St.                  
7. Clemson
8. UCLA
9. Mississippi St.
10. Alabama
11. North Carolina
12. South Carolina
13. Mississippi
14. Auburn
15. Texas
16. Texas Tech.
17. Missouri
18. Coastal Carolina
19. Kentucky
20. Miami (Fla.)
21. Stetson
22. Oklahoma St.
23. Oregon St.
24. Arkansas
25. Kent St.
26. Virginia
27. Southern California
28. Florida International
29. Texas A&M
30. Oklahoma
31. Texas Christian
32. Washington St.
33. Cal. St. Fullerton
34. N.C. State
35. Nevada-Las Vegas
36. Georgia
37. Minnesota
38. Tennessee
39. U.C. Santa Barbara
40. Pepperdine

Other Top Recruiting Classes: Illinois, West Virginia, South Alabama, Oregon, Washington, Duke, Wake Forest, Dallas Baptist, Georgia Tech., Stanford, Baylor, Arizona St., New Mexico St., Nebraska, Louisiana-Lafayette, California, Cal. St. Northridge, Connecticut, Virginia Tech., U.C. Irvine, Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Rice, Michigan, South Florida, Missouri St., Long Beach St., Wichita St., Central Michigan, San Diego St., Houston, San Diego, Southern Mississippi, Nevada, Maryland, Central Florida, Brigham Young, Tulane, Sacramento St., Florida Gulf Coast, Stony Brook, N.C. Charlotte, Grand Canyon, East Carolina, Sam Houston St., Lamar, Cal. Poly, Oral Roberts, Hawaii, Florida Atlantic, Winthrop, Ball St., St. John’s, Seton Hall, Indiana, Mercer, Creighton, Iowa, Fresno St., Utah, Santa Clara, Michigan St., San Francisco, New Mexico, Siena, Ohio St., Purdue, East Tennessee St., Pittsburgh.

Source: Collegiate Baseball

Previous NCAA Div. I
Recruiting Champions
By Collegiate Baseball

2017: Vanderbilt
2016: Arizona St.
2015: Florida
2014: Louisiana St.
2013: Florida
2012: Vanderbilt
2011: South Carolina
2010: Louisiana St.

2009: Florida
2008: Arizona St.
2007: Louisiana St.
2006: South Carolina
2005: South Carolina
2004: Louisiana St.
2003: North Carolina
           South Carolina
2002: Georgia Tech.
2001: Southern California
2000: Cal. St. Fullerton

1999: Southern California
1998: Georgia Tech.
1997: UCLA
1996: Texas A&M
1995: Arizona St.
1994: Mississippi St.
1993: Miami (Fla.)
1992: Florida St.
1991: Miami (Fla.)
1990: Arizona

1989: Florida St.
1988: Miami (Fla.)
1987: Stanford
1986: Stanford
1985: Hawaii
1984: Florida St.
1983: Arizona St.

Source: Collegiate Baseball

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Pat Casey, the winningest coach in Oregon State athletics history, announced his retirement from coaching after 24 years in Corvallis and 31 seasons at the collegiate level.

Collegiate Baseball’s 2018 National Coach of The Year, he claimed 900 victories at Oregon State, with the last coming in the final game of the 2018 College World Series as the Beavers won their third national championship.

While coaching at Oregon State, his teams made six visits to the College World Series, and won 21 games in Omaha, among the most in CWS history. His teams made 13 total trips to the postseason, accounting for 64 of Oregon State baseball’s 69 all-time victories.

Casey coached 21 players who have since appeared at the Major League level, and countless others who have gone on to successful careers off the field.

“I would first like to thank all the players who have given me the opportunity and honor to coach them over the last 31 years,” Casey said.

“Your dedicated commitment has truly made the journey what it is and made what we do more than special; I will be forever grateful. You have left me with memories I will never forget. You are true warriors.

“Thank you to our coaching staff at Oregon State – your work ethic and loyalty are second-to-none; each and every one is the absolute best. We’ve had so many great times on and off the field which will never be forgotten. And to all the coaches and support staff members I’ve gotten to work with over so many years, I thank you all. Additionally, thank you to the members of the administration at Oregon State for your support throughout the years.

“To my wife, Susan, and my family, thank you for being there every step of the way.

“I don’t have enough space or time to thank all the individuals who I’ve had the pleasure of working with throughout the years. You know who you are and I want to thank each and every one of you.”

Casey will remain at Oregon State as a Senior Associate Athletics Director/Special Assistant to Vice President and Director of Athletics Scott Barnes.

“It’s very difficult to put into words what Coach Casey has done for Oregon State University, the state of Oregon, college baseball overall and the tremendous impact he has made on the lives of so many young people during his coaching career,” Barnes said.

“While I’m saddened to lose Coach Casey in the dugout; I’m thrilled to have Coach Casey remain on staff to serve as an ambassador for our department, be a mentor for other coaches, and play a role in fundraising.”

Barnes said Pat Bailey, who served as an assistant coach and associate head coach under Casey for 11 seasons at Oregon State, has been named interim head coach. A national search will begin at the conclusion of the 2019 season.

OSU is the only program to ever win six elimination games in Omaha, doing so in 2006 and 2018. The Beavers also became just the fifth program in NCAA history to win back-to-back national titles and were the first Northern school to win a championship in more than 40 years.

In his last two seasons, Casey guided the Beavers to a 111-18-1 record, the second-most wins over a two-year stretch in conference history. OSU went 57-6 (.905) at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field over that stretch; the Beavers posted winning records at home in 21 of Casey’s 24 seasons at the helm.

A total of 116 players have been drafted by MLB organizations since 1995, with eight going in the first round, including a school-record three in 2018 (Nick Madrigal, Trevor Larnach and Cadyn Grenier). Twenty-one of those selections have played in the Major Leagues, with a school-record 11 appearing at the game’s highest level in 2017.