On Saturday I wrote that the Terrapin baseball program was set to hire Vanderbilt assistant Erik Bakich as their new head coach, and now, it’s been confirmed.
Bakich becomes the sixth head coach in the history of the program, and inherits a team that finished 27-27, 10-21 ACC in the 2009 season. But Athletic Director Debbie Yow and Assistant AD/Baseball Supervisor Dan Trump are hoping that Bakich’s recruiting success with the Commodores translates similarly to the ACC.
Here is what Bakich had to see in the release:
“I am eager to attack the recruiting trail and start building a winning baseball tradition at Maryland. There are numerous parallels between Maryland and the Vanderbilt of seven years ago. Much like Vanderbilt, our first goal will be reaching the ACC Tournament and eventually becoming a perennial College World Series contender. From a recruiting standpoint, we will be relentless in securing our borders around the state of Maryland and Northern Virginia, as well as tapping into the deep recruiting resources of the Northeast and Pennsylvania. I look forward to establishing a relationship with the current high school baseball coaches throughout the state of Maryland, former Maryland players, alumni and all the Terps fans across the nation.”
That should be music to Yow and Trump’s ears.
The next question will be what Bakich plans to do with assistant coaches Jim Farr and Blaine Brown, both of whom are left over from the Terry Rupp era. Farr expressed interest in the head coaching position and was considered as a candidate for most of the two-month search period.
Bakich will undoubtedly work hard to secure next year’s recruiting class, but it will also be interesting to see what he does with the remainder of this year’s class. Farr mentioned that there were still some recruits on the fence he was hoping to convince to come to campus next year.
So, although a major question surrounding the program has now been answered, there is still plenty of work left to do before next February.
Michael Lemaire was The Diamondback’s 2009 Terrapin baseball beat writer. He can be reached at lemairedbk@gmail.com