Chris Ramirez named next USI baseball coach
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The University of Southern Indiana has hired Lenoir-Rhyne University coach Chris Ramirez to lead its baseball program.
As head coach at the North Carolina university, he led the Bears to their most successful five seasons in program history with a 152-80 record and reached the postseason in 2022.
Before Lenoir-Rhyne, he was the head coach at the University of Illinois Springfield, where he earned trips to the NCAA II Tournament in 2018 and 2019 and was named the NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
“I am very excited for the opportunity to lead the USI baseball program,” Ramirez said in a news release. “The Screaming Eagles have had a rich tradition and history of success, which I look forward to building upon. Our plan is to win championships in the Ohio Valley Conference and compete in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. I can’t wait to get to know our current players and get to work.”
Ramirez replaces Tracy Archuleta, who left after 18 years to become the head coach of Indiana State University. Archuleta led the Screaming Eagles to two NCAA Division II national championships and helped transition the program to NCAA Division I.
Ramirez has an overall 351-202-1 record as a head coach in 11 seasons. At the University of Illinois Springfield, he led the Prairie Stars into the NCAA II Midwest Regional for the first time in program history in 2018 with a 47-9 record and a Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season championship with a 23-1 conference mark. At Lenoir-Rhyne, he led the Bears to a No. 15 national ranking in 2022 and No. 7 in 2023, according to the release.
He becomes the sixth head baseball coach in the history of the 54-year-old program at the University of Southern Indiana.
“We had incredible interest in this position as many coaches feel the same as we do that USI can win championships and make NCAA regionals when eligible,” USI Director of Athletics Jon Mark Hall said in the news release. “We landed on Chris because he is a winner and, like USI, earned his success through hard work. He has a blue collar, hard-working mentality that will fit right in with our athletic department and the University.”