Bearkats' Pierce, Lions' Artigues Named Coaches on the Rise
FRISCO, Texas – Sam Houston State baseball coach David Pierce and Southeastern Louisiana coach Jay Artigues have been named two of the top 10 rising stars in the ranks of college baseball according national collegiate baseball writer and blogger Kendall Rogers of the Perfect Game.
Pierce was named the 2012 NCAA Division I South Central "Regional Coach of the Year" by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), one of only eight NCAA Division I baseball coaches to be so honored last season after leading the Bearkats to a 40-22 record.
During Pierce's first season as head coach of the Bearkats, the 2012 baseball team hoisted the Southland Conference regular-season championship trophy for the first time in 23 years. Sam Houston earned the title by a margin of four games. The 24 Southland Conference victories tied the league record for most conference wins in a season. For the first time in their 12 trips to the Southland post-season tournament, the Kats were the No. 1 seed.
Sam Houston State’s 40 wins was only the third time in the Bearkats' 26 seasons at the NCAA Division I level for the squad to compile 40 or more victories. Then Sam Houston received its first at-large selection to the NCAA tournament as a Southland Conference member. The Bearkats punched their tickets to the NCAA Baseball Championships in 1996, 2007, 2008 and 2009 as winners of the Southland tournament.
Last year, the Bearkats climbed as high as No. 20 in the national polls and posted wins over Rice, San Diego, Houston and Dallas Baptist, as well as a three-game sweep of nationally ranked Texas State.
Artigues, a native of Bay St. Louis, Miss., enters his eighth season in charge of the Lion program with a 240-164 won-loss record, the second-most wins in school history, and several nationally-recognized recruiting classes.
Southeastern has won at least 35 games in each of the last four seasons, including the two highest single-season win totals in school history during the 2010 and 2012 seasons.
Artigues' program has also produced current Arizona Diamondback Wade Miley, the Sporting News' 2012 National League Rookie of the Year.
“I'm honored and humbled at the same time,” Artigues said. “This honor is a tribute to all the coaches I've worked with and the kids that have come through this program. They've all had a hand in getting us to this point.”
For a complete list of the top rising coaches and to see what Rogers and the Perfect Game had to say about the coaches, visit PerfectGame.org.