BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana Baseball head coach Chris Lemonis announced the promotion of pitching coach Kyle Bunn to Associate Head Coach on Monday. Bunn is entering his third season with the program.
“Kyle is very deserving of being named Associate Head Coach,” said Lemonis. “He has shown the ability to guide and develop a pitching staff on the national level. We have had eight pitchers who have been drafted and or signed on with MLB organizations in the past two years and the 2016 pitching staff finished as the 11th best team ERA in the country. He is a tireless recruiter who lives the game of baseball and has prepared himself to be a head coach in the very near future.”
“I feel very honored and fortunate to have been named the Associate Head Coach for IU’s baseball program,” said Bunn. “My family and I have had a relationship for over 20 years with Coach Lemonis as a player, a mentor and currently a boss. He is not only a great man but has been and still is an awesome example to follow in my journey through college baseball. I look forward to the seasons ahead for Indiana Baseball, and I am extremely grateful to be a part of it each day as we continue to work to ‘dogpile’ and be a champion.”
During the 2016 campaign, Bunn tutored one of the top pitching staffs in the county, led by First Team All-Conference selection Kyle Hart. Hart, along with Caleb Baragar, Jake Kelzer, and Evan Bell all inked professional contracts with MLB organizations. The pitching staff as a whole in 2016 ranked second in the country in walks allowed per nine innings (2.31), fifth in WHIP (1.15) and 11th in team ERA (3.09). Indiana led the Big Ten in walks per nine innings, WHIP, strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.17), was second in team ERA and second in hits allowed per nine innings (8.02).
During his first season leading the Hoosier pitchers in 2015, Bunn’s pitching staff ranked in the top five in the Big Ten in nine different statistical categories, including third in batters struck out (493). Five of his pitchers, including Scott Effross, Ryan Halstead, Luke Harrison, Christian Morris and Kelzer were selected in the MLB Draft.
Bunn, who enters his 15th year overall coaching Division I baseball in 2016-17, has been known nationally for developing his pitchers as 54 of them have gone on to play professional baseball. Overall, a total of nine of his pitchers have reached the Major Leagues. Bunn has been part of coaching staffs that have developed a total of 97 players to go on and play professionally and 20 players who have made the big leagues. Bunn and those staffs have developed three first round draft picks and 22 top five round draft picks.
During his 15-year stint as an assistant at Ole Miss (2002-07), Clemson (2008-09), Alabama (2010), East Tennessee State (2012-14) and Indiana (2015-present), Bunn has tutored a National Freshman of the Year (two-way player), a Conference Player of the Year (two-way player), a Conference Pitcher of the Year and two Conference Freshmen of the Year. In total, coaching staffs he has been a part of have produced eight All-Americans, 10 freshman All-Americans, 31 All-Conference Players and 83 Academic All-Conference Players. He has been a part of 11 NCAA Regional teams (two as a player, nine as a coach) and five NCAA Super-Regional teams (all as a coach).
