Garza Elevated to Associate Head Coach
Jun 21 | Baseball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Mike Garza has been elevated to the position of Associate Head Coach/Hitting/Recruiting for Rutgers baseball, head coach Steve Owens announced on Friday.
Garza is set for his fourth season on the RU staff and his second as hitting coach. He adds the title of Associate Head Coach and will now oversee the program's recruiting efforts as well. He initially served as the program's volunteer assistant in 2022 and 2023.
In Garza's first year leading the offense in 2024, he helped Rutgers post the Big Ten's best batting average at .307, also overseeing a team that led the conference with 571 hits, ranked second in hit-by-pitches, third in stolen bases, third in triples, fourth in double plays, fourth in fielding percentage, fifth in on-base percentage and fifth in runs.
Under Garza's leadership, junior shortstop Josh Kuroda-Grauer was named Big Ten Player of the Year, the first time since Rutgers joined the conference in 2015 that a player received a major award from the Big Ten. After hitting .298 as a sophomore, Kuroda-Grauer broke out to lead the country with 95 hits, lead the Big Ten with a .428 average, added five home runs, 19 doubles, 45 RBI and 24 stolen bases. Kuroda-Grauer was also named First Team All-America by ABCA/Rawlings and Perfect Game.
Garza has proven to be one of the elite developers of infielders in the country, mentoring a pair of All-Americans at shortstop in Kuroda-Grauer and Danny DiGeorgio. In DiGeorgio and Kuroda-Grauer, Rutgers is the only program in the country to have two different shortstops named a finalist for the Brooks Wallace Award (nation's top shortstop) in the last three seasons.
Garza is set for his fourth season on the RU staff and his second as hitting coach. He adds the title of Associate Head Coach and will now oversee the program's recruiting efforts as well. He initially served as the program's volunteer assistant in 2022 and 2023.
In Garza's first year leading the offense in 2024, he helped Rutgers post the Big Ten's best batting average at .307, also overseeing a team that led the conference with 571 hits, ranked second in hit-by-pitches, third in stolen bases, third in triples, fourth in double plays, fourth in fielding percentage, fifth in on-base percentage and fifth in runs.
Under Garza's leadership, junior shortstop Josh Kuroda-Grauer was named Big Ten Player of the Year, the first time since Rutgers joined the conference in 2015 that a player received a major award from the Big Ten. After hitting .298 as a sophomore, Kuroda-Grauer broke out to lead the country with 95 hits, lead the Big Ten with a .428 average, added five home runs, 19 doubles, 45 RBI and 24 stolen bases. Kuroda-Grauer was also named First Team All-America by ABCA/Rawlings and Perfect Game.
Garza has proven to be one of the elite developers of infielders in the country, mentoring a pair of All-Americans at shortstop in Kuroda-Grauer and Danny DiGeorgio. In DiGeorgio and Kuroda-Grauer, Rutgers is the only program in the country to have two different shortstops named a finalist for the Brooks Wallace Award (nation's top shortstop) in the last three seasons.
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