WACO, Texas – Steve Rodriguez, who enjoyed a successful playing and coaching career at Pepperdine University, has been selected as Baylor University’s 19th head baseball coach, Vice President and Director of Athletics Ian McCaw announced.”We are excited to introduce Steve Rodriguez and welcome him and his family to Baylor,” McCaw said. “Steve is a dynamic leader, players’ coach, tireless recruiter and wonderful mission fit for our program. His highly successful coaching career and major league baseball playing experience will afford our student-athletes a rewarding experience as we build a championship program.”
An All-America second baseman on Pepperdine’s 1992 NCAA College World Series championship team, Rodriguez has spent the last 12 seasons as head coach at his alma mater, leading the Waves to a 401-300* (.572) record, including a 178-109 (.620) mark in West Coast Conference play, with eight NCAA Tournament appearances, five WCC regular-season titles, three WCC Championship Series crowns and a pair of WCC Tournament titles to his credit. He ranks as the second-winningest coach in program history, his 701 games coached are a school-record and he also earned a pair of WCC Coach of the Year awards.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be the next head coach of the Baylor baseball program,” Rodriguez said. “Baylor’s incredible commitment to athletic success, academics and faith makes this team the ultimate baseball program to be a part of for my family. We are honored and privileged to be part of Baylor Athletics, and we are excited about the future of Baylor baseball.”
In 2015, Pepperdine went 32-29 overall, 17-10 in the WCC and captured the WCC Tournament title for the second straight season to earn its eighth NCAA Tournament bid under Rodriguez. The Waves eliminated Clemson and Arizona State in Fullerton Regional action before falling to eventual College World Series entrant Cal-State Fullerton in the NCAA Regional final.
Rodriguez earned 2014 WCC Coach of the Year honors after leading the Waves to a 43-18 overall record (18-9 WCC), the program’s most wins since 1999 and the seventh-most in program history, and a sweep of the WCC regular-season and tournament titles. Pepperdine went on to win the San Luis Obispo Regional with a 3-0 record to advance to its first-ever NCAA Super Regional (since the round was instituted in 1999), dropping a heart-breaking three-game series at nationally seeded TCU. Following the 2014 season, he served as an assistant coach with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team.
Introduced as Pepperdine’s 16th head coach on June 18, 2003, Rodriguez guided the Waves to NCAA Tournament appearances in each of his first five seasons as skipper (2004-08), averaging more than 37 wins per season in the process and winning at least 30 games every year, while capturing a pair of outright WCC crowns (2004 and 2005) and a share of the 2006 league title. Pepperdine also won three consecutive WCC Championship Series from 2004-06, advancing to the NCAA Regional final each season, and hosting its first-ever NCAA Regional in 2006.
The Waves were picked to finish fifth in the 2012 WCC preseason coaches poll, but beat San Diego in the final game of the regular season to clinch the league title and would go on to finish second at the NCAA Stanford Regional. For his efforts, Rodriguez was honored with his first WCC Coach of the Year award.
Rodriguez recruited and coached seven All-Americans at Pepperdine, including 2012 WCC Player of the Year Joe Sever, 2012 Brooks Wallace Award winner Zach Vincej and first-team All-American Aaron Brown, and his players earned 85 All-WCC honors. Four of his former players have reached the major leagues – Chase d’Arnaud, Barry Enright, Eric Thames and Danny Worth — and his players were drafted by MLB clubs 43 times. The Waves tied a school record with nine players taken in the 2007 MLB Draft and had at least two players selected in 10 drafts.
In addition to enriching Pepperdine’s proud history on the diamond, Rodriguez and his staff were also tireless fundraisers for the program. Those efforts have paid off with the installation of new stadium seats (2004), a new, state-of-the-art scoreboard (2007), a new backstop (2008), a new padded outfield wall (2009) and new turf in the batting cages (2011).
Prior to becoming just the third Pepperdine player to later become the program’s head coach, Rodriguez served as a Waves’ assistant coach for four seasons, during which time Pepperdine compiled an overall record of 145-98 (.597), including an 88-32 (.733) mark in WCC play. The Waves captured the 2001 WCC title and made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2001 and 2003.
A fifth-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 1992, Rodriguez played professionally for seven seasons with the Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Montreal Expos organizations. He reached the majors with both Boston and Detroit in 1995.
A two-time All-American, he was named the 1992 WCC Player of the Year as the Waves posted a 48-11 mark and captured the program’s first-ever College World Series title. Rodriguez was named to the All-CWS team and was part of two memorable plays in Omaha: a grand slam that helped defeat Texas in the semifinal round and a late-inning defensive gem in the Waves’ 3-2 win over Cal State Fullerton in the championship game. During his three seasons (1990-92) at Pepperdine, the Waves posted a 126-51-5 (.706) record, including a 72-26 (.735) mark in league play, with league titles and NCAA Tournament trips in 1991 and 1992.
Rodriguez’ career batting average of .367 ranks second on the Waves’ all-time list, and despite playing just three seasons of collegiate baseball, he is tied for third on the school’s all-time career runs scored chart (187) and is fourth in hits (271). A first-team All-WCC selection in 1991 and 1992, Rodriguez made a big splash as a sophomore in 1991 when he batted .419, the third-highest single-season average in school history. His 104 base hits that season set a Pepperdine single-season record that still stands and he still ranks among the top 10 in five different single-season categories. In 2001, Rodriguez was named one of the WCC’s Top 50 athletes of all time, and was selected to the conference’s 40th Anniversary baseball team in 2007. The two-time member of Team USA played in the 1991 Pan American Games and earned “Player of the Series” honors against Mexico and Cuba. He was also named “Player of the Series” against Korea while a member of Team USA in 1992.
Following his professional playing career, Rodriguez enrolled in classes at Riverside Community College and Chapman University before returning to Pepperdine, where he received a bachelor’s degree in public relations in December of 2001. He earned a master’s degree in educational technology from Pepperdine in 2003.
Rodriguez and his wife, Kimberlee, have a daughter, Julia, and a son, Nolan, and live in Agoura Hills. In October 2007, he was honored by the City of Malibu with the Jake Kuredjian Award for his service to the community. In January 2010, Rodriguez won the Top Chef Award at the Baseball Coaches Cooking Challenge hosted by the ESPN Zone in Anaheim, Calif., and successfully defended his title in 2011.
