Pitching coach Nate Yeskie of the Oregon State Beavers takes out pitcher pitcher Luke Heimlich in the fifth inning against the Arkansas Razorbacks during game one of the College World Series Championship Series on June 26, 2018 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
The Louisiana State University Tigers are hiring Nate Yeskie from Texas A&M as their pitching coach for the 2024 season.
Kendall Rogers from D1Baseball.com reported the move on Friday. The previous LSU pitching coach, Wes Johnson, was named head coach at Georgia prior to the start of the NCAA tournament.
Yeskie helped Texas A&M reach the 2022 College World Series in his first year as their pitching coach. He was named 2017 D1Baseball’s Assistant Coach of the Year with Oregon State the year prior to the program winning their third national championship in Omaha in 2018.
Yeskie has been named National Pitching Coach of the Year of the year twice, in 2013 and 2017.
During the 2017 season, Yeskie helped the Oregon State University program set a school record, posting a 1.93 ERA, the best in the country. Yeskie’s pitching staff was in the top 20 in the country in ERA during six of his 10 coaching seasons, along with being in the top four in the Pac-12 every season he was on the coaching staff.
Yeskie has produced 32 pitchers who were selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, including 17 players that were taken in the first nine rounds and six who have reached the Major League level in his 10 seasons at Oregon State from 2009-19.
Yeskie had been part of current LSU head coach Jay Johnson’s coaching staff at the University of Arizona and helped guide the Wildcats to the 2021 College World Series in his second season in Tucson, along with winning the 2021 Pac-12 conference championship.
Yeskie began his collegiate coaching career at his alma mater, UNLV, during the 2005 season, where he spent three seasons.
During his playing career, Yeskie was a three-year letterwinner at UNLV and recorded a 21-12 record with 246 strikeouts, pitching in 42 games before being drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the ninth round of the 1996 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft and playing five seasons in professional baseball.
He will take over an LSU pitching staff that was tied for second in the country with 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings. In 71 games during the 2023 season, the Bayou Bengals led the country in shutouts with 12 after beating their SEC rival, theFlorida Gators, in the College World Series final.