Baseball America names Pierce 2018 College Coach of the Year
By Steve Lansdale
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas baseball head coach David Pierce capped off a 2018 season in which he guided the Longhorns to a 42-23 record and a trip to the College World Series by getting named Baseball America’s 2018 College Coach of the year.
In just his second season at UT, Pierce helped the Longhorns with the Big 12 championship for the first time since 2011; at the end of the season, he also earned the conference’s Coach of the Year award.
Texas went 3-0 in the Austin Regional, beating Tennessee Tech, 2-1, to earn a trip to the CWS in Omaha, Nebraska, marking the program’s 36th trip to college baseball’s biggest stage.
In taking over the program in Austin, the former Tulane head coach had the unenviable task of following legendary coach Augie Garrido, who piled up more victories than any coach in the history of the sport. It is perhaps fitting that he won the award this season, a year some have suggested was Pierce’s best as a coach. He invariably deflects credit to his players, but Pierce coached a UT roster that wasn’t as loaded with blue-chip talent as the program has had in other seasons and got the team to the top of the Big 12 and back to the College World Series.
