OMAHA (NCBWA) – One of college baseball's
most accomplished skippers, UC Irvine's Mike Gillespie, was tabbed
as the 2014 National College Baseball Writers Association Coach
of the Year by the association at a national media conference on
Saturday, June 14, at TD Ameritrade Park. Gillespie is the seventh
recipient of the annual award that is voted upon by the NCBWA Board
of Directors.
Gillespie has seen his Anteaters overcome a regular-season tailspin
to land in the College World Series for the just the second time
in program history. After dropping eight of its last nine and being
unranked in the NCBWA Top 30 entering the NCAA Tournament, the Anteaters
won the Corvallis Regional, knocking off No. 1 overall seed Oregon
State. UCI then took two straight at the Stillwater Super Regional
to advance to Omaha for the first time since 2007.
That 2008 season was when Gillespie was handed the reins at UCI,
after he took a season off following a remarkable 20-year run at
Southern Cal. Gillespie and company made the NCAA Tournament in
his first four seasons at Irvine, but never advanced past the Super
Regional round.
Entering Saturday's CWS opener vs. Texas with a 40-23 record,
Gillespie has led one of his squads to a 40-win season for the 14th
time in his 27 seasons as a collegiate head coach. He picked up
win No. 1,000 of his career earlier in the campaign and ranks No.
16 on the all-time wins list with 1,036.
The American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer is no
stranger to Omaha, having taking USC to the CWS five times, which
included a 1998 title run.
NCBWA membership includes writers, broadcasters and publicists.
Designed to promote and publicize college baseball, it is the sport's
only college media-related organization, founded in 1962.
Related link: •
NCBWA Coach of the Year
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