http://santaclarabroncos.com/sports/m-basebl/2016-17/releases/20170130uepjj7
SCU adds the 21 year head coaching veteran of Baylor baseball as an assistant, who has a pretty impressive resume…
Seems reminiscent of the long anticipated but never fulfilled “grey-hair” that we wanted for Keating (except that Coach O’Brien has shown success as an HC, albeit at another level)…
Also somewhat intones a “we’re-hiring-your-replacement-early-to-keep-continuinity” kind of thing, though who knows… perhaps O’Brien is popular but Baumgartner wants some say…Or just SCU baseball making use of some new funds after the Blue Ribbon commission.
Seems like a hire that can only help- all I know is that the long respectable SCU baseball program (the wikipedia page does a good job of shedding light on their history) has inexplicably sucked since moving from a football stadium with a backstop to a state-of-the-art, beautiful baseball-specific facility. Perhaps the removal of the two-sport baseball/football player, which remains common among D1 baseball teams (just look at Stanford) hurt SCU’s ability to compete… Just a guess, and probably only a small part of some bigger issue.
I think college baseball is a fun sport, well suited to SCU’s weather, and have always enjoyed the experience of Schott Stadium (as well as mid-week games at Sunken Diamond, Evans Field, and SJSU) as an undergrad. They looked like they were turning the corner after making the WCC tourney (top 4 teams) a few years back, but alas, not quite.
go broncos.
