DURHAM, N.C. — USA Baseball announced on Friday the 2019 Collegiate National Team coaching staff. Dan McDonnell (Louisville) was named the manager for the Collegiate team last July and he will be joined by assistant coaches Mark Kingston (South Carolina) and Tony Skole (The Citadel), pitching coach Greg Moore (Saint Mary’s) and bench coach Dave Turgeon (Pittsburgh Pirates) for the summer tour.
McDonnell is making his Team USA managerial debut this year but is suiting up for the red, white and blue for the second time in his career. He previously served as an assistant coach on the 2009 Collegiate National Team staff.
Moore is also no stranger to the Team USA coaching ranks, having served as an assistant coach for the gold medal-winning 2015 and 2016 18U National Teams. Kingston, Skole and Turgeon are all making their USA Baseball coaching debuts this year.
“We are delighted to welcome the talent and expertise these coaches will bring to the 2019 Collegiate National Team staff,” USA Baseball Executive Director and CEO Paul Seiler said. “The collective knowledge and experience they contribute is tremendous and we cannot wait to see how they continue the Collegiate National Team program’s impressive run of success and the impact they have on these incredible athletes.”
McDonnell is currently in his 13th season at the helm of Louisville, where he has led the Cardinals to a 603-238 overall record and was named the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Coach of the Year in three consecutive years from 2015-2017. He has led the Cardinals to nine regular season conference championships (including six in a row from 2012-2017), 12 NCAA Regional appearances, eight NCAA Super Regionals and to five College World Series, including the 2019 tournament. Rivals and Baseball America tabbed McDonnell as the National Coach of the Year in 2007 and 2017, respectively.
Kingston finished his second season at the helm of South Carolina in 2019 after guiding the Gamecocks to a 37-26 record and an NCAA Super Regional appearance in his first season. Prior to his time in Columbia, Kingston spent three years as the head coach at University of South Florida where he compiled a 100-78-1 (.561) record and led the Bulls to two NCAA Regional appearances. He also served as the head coach at Illinois State University from 2010-2014 and helped the Redbirds to an NCAA Regional, two Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles and a conference tournament championship while breaking the program’s season wins record twice. In his ten seasons as a head coach, Kingston has compiled a 338-234-1 record (.590). In addition, he has been a college coach since 1997, serving as an assistant coach from 1997-2009 at Purdue University, Illinois State, University of Miami-where he helped the Hurricanes claim a College World Series title in 2001-and Tulane University. Kingston was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers out of the University of North Carolina in 1992 and spent five years in the Brewers and Chicago Cubs organizations before starting his coaching career.
2019 marks Moore’s third year as a national team coach with USA Baseball. He made his debut as the pitching coach for the 2015 18U National Team that won a gold medal at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-18 Baseball World Cup. He then returned to the 18U National Team program in 2016 where he helped guide Team USA’s pitching staff to a 1.14 ERA en route to a COPABE “AAA” Pan American Championships gold medal.
Recently named the head coach at Saint Mary’s College, Moore joined the Gaels after six seasons at the helm of Cal State Northridge. During his tenure with the Matadors, the program collected more Big West Conference wins (44) from 2014-2018 than in any other four-year block in school history and Moore led the team to its best Big West Conference finish (third) in 16 years in 2018. Prior to his time at Cal State Northridge, Moore started his coaching career at University of South Florida, where he was named one of the Top 10 Assistant Coaches in College Baseball by Baseball America. In addition, he spent three seasons as the associate head coach at his alma mater, the University of San Francisco, where the team ranked sixth nationally with a conference-best 2.86 ERA.
In 2019, Skole entered his second season as the head coach at The Citadel, following 17 years as the head coach at East Tennessee State University where he accumulated a program-record 471 wins. Under his guidance, the Bucs surpassed multiple school records, including the single-season records for runs scored (503), hits (724), home runs (93) and doubles (142) in 2010. He started his 22-year head coaching career at Lincoln Memorial University in 1997 and led the team’s transition from the NAIA to a Division II program that rose as high as No. 13 in the national rankings.
Turgeon currently serves as the Coordinator of Instruction for the Pittsburgh Pirates and is a USA Baseball Sport Development contributor following a successful 20-year coaching career. His first coaching stint was in the Cleveland Indians system as manager of the Burlington Indians in 2000 and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in 2001. He then moved to the collegiate coaching ranks, where he spent time as an assistant coach at Boston College, UCONN, Duke and Virginia Tech. In 2010, he moved back to professional baseball, working as a manager in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization before transitioning into his current role with the club in 2015. Prior to coaching, he was a standout third baseman at Davidson College before being selected in the 1987 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the New York Yankees. Turgeon enjoyed a 13-year professional playing career that included time in the Yankees and Orioles systems, as well as time playing in Holland, France, Taiwan and Mexico.
Chris Lemonis, who is in his first year at the helm of Mississippi State, will serve as a taskforce member and founder of Catching 101, Xan Barksdale, will serve as the 2019 Collegiate National Team’s bullpen coach following three straight years working with the 14U National Team Development Program (2016-2018). Bill Burniston, who was named the 2017 USA Baseball Volunteer Coach of the Year, will return for his seventh consecutive year with the Collegiate National Team program as the team’s performance specialist. In addition, Pat Hassell has been named the team’s certified athletic trainer following 10 years working with McDonnell’s baseball program at Louisville, Brett Moore (Illinois) will serve as the team’s press officer and Ryan Brittain (NC State) will assist as the operations coordinator.
The 2019 Collegiate National Team will start its summer at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, competing in intrasquad Red vs. Blue games from June 27-30 before playing against the Coastal Plain League Select team on July 1.
The team will then host the 8th Annual USA vs. Cuba International Friendship Series in various locations across North Carolina from July 2-6. The two teams will kick off the series at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory, North Carolina, on July 2 before a July 3 matchup at BB&T Ballpark in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Fourth of July game between the two teams will be played in Durham, North Carolina, at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) followed by a game at the National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, on July 5. The series will wrap-up on July 6 when the team’s will once again meet at the DBAP in Durham.
Following the annual friendship series with Cuba, the Collegiate National Team will travel to Taipei, Taiwan, for the 19th USA vs. Chinese Taipei International Friendship Series from July 9-12 before heading to Matsuyama, Japan, to begin the 43rd USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Stars Series from July 16-21.
