LSU baseball set to hire former Texas A&M pitching coach Nate Yeskie
The defending College World Series champions just added more talent. On Friday, D1Baseball announced LSU baseball is hiring Texas A&M associate head coach Nate Yeskie as its next pitching coach.
“[LSU baseball] is hiring Nate Yeskie as its next pitching coach, [D1Baseball] has learned. Yeskie spent the last two seasons with the Aggies and helped them reach the final four in 2022. He also won [D1Baseball] Assistant of the Year honors in 2017 with [Oregon State],” D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers wrote on Twitter.
LSU’s new hire is necessary. Earlier this month, Georgia announced LSU pitching coach Wes Johnson would take over the Bulldogs’ program.
“We are extremely excited to welcome Wes Johnson and his family to Athens and the University of Georgia,” Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks said. “Wes has a proven track record of developing student-athletes while helping teams achieve impressive results. We aim to compete for postseason success and championships, and Wes has done that throughout his coaching career at every level, from high school to college and up to the Major Leagues. We are confident he will make Georgia Baseball one of the premier programs in the country.”
Helping produce pitchers such as Paul Skenes and Ty Floyd, Johnson will be missed. Nonetheless, Yeskie is no slouch. Before helping out at Mississippi State, the veteran coach was on Jay Johnson’s staff at Arizona. Prior to that, Yeskie coached at Oregon State for 11 years, boosting the team to a national title in 2018.
Although several of LSU’s top arms will be gone next season, Yeskie isn’t starting from scratch. LSU will likely return young pitchers such as Thatcher Hurd and Griffin Herring. Hurd was the starting pitcher in LSU’s series-deciding Game 3 win over Florida.
Not to be outdone, Herring was equally fantastic in LSU’s Game 2 win over Wake Forest. Herring pitched for 4.2 innings, giving up three hits and zero runs. Further, the 6-foot-2 freshman delivered a career-high six strikeouts.
Yeskie will have no shortage of weapons at his disposal to bring the LSU faithful another fantastic season. Admittedly, it will be difficult to top this past year. LSU finished the season 54-17, winning its first CWS since 2009.
Moreover, the Tigers boasted perhaps the two best players in college baseball with Dylan Crews and Skenes. While replacing these talents isn’t an easy task, Yeskie will be a key component to creating the next class of Tigers.