Maryland hired Kansas State associate head coach John Szefc as its baseball coach. He replaces Erik Bakich, who last month left to take over at Michigan after three seasons.
A Middletown, N.Y., native, Szefc was previously a head coach at Marist, producing a 212-137-1 record and three NCAA tournament appearances over seven seasons between 1996 and 2002. He later worked as an assistant at UL Lafayette (2003-08), Kansas (2009-10) and Kansas State (2011-12).
“I’ve been an assistant for the last 10 years and drawn good experience off that, but my heart has always been in being a head coach and building my own program,” Szefc said. “I always kept an eye on different opportunities, for the most part on the East Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region. And lo and behold this whole thing came about.”
The 44-year-old takes over a Maryland program that has not reached the NCAA tournament since 1971 and has not earned a place in the ACC tournament since the league expanded to 12 teams in 2006. However, the Terps are coming off a 32-24 spring, the second-winningest season in school history.
“Erik Bakich laid a very strong foundation,” Szefc said. “He has this program going in the right direction. If you walk around, you see the setup and the future growth potential. There’s a lot of positives.”
