From a news release
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – Jacksonville State has hired Steve Bieser as just its third head baseball coach since 1970 and the man that will lead the Gamecocks into Conference USA, Athletics Director Greg Seitz announced on Saturday.
The Gamecocks bring in a coach that has enjoyed a great deal of success as a head coach after a 13-year professional career as a player. Bieser replaces longtime head coach Jim Case, who announced his retirement after 22 seasons in charge of the Jax State program.
“We feel like we found the best possible coach to lead us into the next era of Jax State Baseball in Steve Bieser,” Seitz said. “He brings over 20 years of coaching experience and has been successful at every stop. We are excited to see the heights he can take our program to as we move into Conference USA and know he will continue to build upon the great foundation that is already in place in our program.”
Bieser comes to the Gamecocks after seven seasons as the head coach at Missouri, which followed a four-year stint as the head coach at his alma mater of Southeast Missouri State that saw him win three-straight Ohio Valley Conference titles with the Redhawks. In 11 seasons as a Division I head coach he has posted a 326-252-1 record and was named the OVC Coach of the Year twice. He played 13 seasons for six different MLB organizations, including two seasons at the Major League level and more than eight in AAA.
“I want to thank President Killingsworth, Greg Seitz and the entire search committee for entrusting me to lead this outstanding baseball program,” Bieser said. “Over the past 53 years, this program has been a model of excellence both on and off the field under the great leadership of Coach Abbott and Coach Case.
“During the past 13 years, I have been able to get to know Coach Case very well, and the respect I have for him and the consistency of excellence he has shown over the years at JSU made me very excited about this opportunity. When Coach Case announced his retirement, I knew this was a place I wanted to pursue and am ready to continue building on this storied program and to bring Championships and develop Champions for life.”
His seven seasons at Missouri saw the Tigers enjoy unprecedented success. His teams posted a 188-155-1 record and made him the fastest coach in Missouri history to reach 100 wins. His first three seasons resulted in 104 wins, the most-ever by a Mizzou head coach, and he finished with a winning record in six of his seven years.
The Tigers won 39 SEC games from 2017-19, the best three-year stretch since joining the league in 2013. They posted an impressive 119-39 (.753) record in out-of-conference games, including a 39-6 non-conference record in his last two seasons in Columbia.
The Tigers produced five All-Americans under Bieser’s guidance and had 22 players selected in the MLB Draft, three in the first round.
Bieser took over the Mizzou program in 2017 after the Tigers had posted just two winning seasons in the previous six years. He would lead them to winning records in six of his seven seasons at the helm. Is first season saw 35 wins, the most by a Missouri club in eight seasons and the most in its SEC history.
Mizzou hired Bieser from SEMO, where he spent the previous seven seasons and the last four as the Redhawks’ head coach. In those four seasons, SEMO posted a 138-95 record and an 80-41 mark in OVC play with regular-season titles in each of his last three years.
Each of those seasons resulted in at least 36 wins, including a school-record 39 victories in 2016. That 2016 team went on to win the OVC Tournament and advance to the NCAA Starkville Regional, while Bieser earned his second OVC Coach of the Year honor. The Redhawks boasted the No. 1 scoring offense in Div. I baseball from 2014-16.
While in Cape Girardeau, Bieser coached three OVC Pitchers of the Year and one OVC Player of the Year, while placing 17 players on the OVC’s All-Conference teams. Seven Redhawks earned All-America honors, led by First-Team All-America pitcher Joey Lucchesi in 2016. Nine SEMO players were selected in the MLB Draft during Bieser’s tenure.
His teams also excelled in the classroom, posting a cumulative 3.26 GPA over his Bieser’s four seasons, while six of his players grabbed Academic All-American honors.
Bieser was a standout on the diamond at SEMO, where he earned his degree in Science in Mathematics Education in 1989. Following his career with the Redhawks, he was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 32nd round of the 1989 MLB Draft.
Bieser spent 13 seasons as a professional player across Major League Baseball and eight more as an associate scout in the Phillies organization.
His 13-year professional playing career saw him reach the Majors with both the Mets and Pirates and also saw him earn the Mets Rookie of the Year honor in 1997. He also played all nine positions in a professional game twice in his career.
Bieser got his coaching career started in 2001 at St. John Vianney High School in Kirkwood, Mo., where he was the assistant coach for two seasons and then the head coach for seven. His teams won the Missouri High School State Championship in 2004 and 2006 after a runner-up finish in 2002, while posting a combined 153-43 record as the head coach. He won five Metro Catholic Conference Championships and four district titles, while grabbing two Missouri Coach of the Year nods and five Conference Coach of the Year awards.
He is a native of Sainte Genevieve, Mo., and he and his wife, Diahann, have a son, Cole, and three daughters, Whitley, Briley and Carley.
“When I met with Greg Seitz and went through the interview I sensed a fantastic leader who has a passion to see the baseball program to be very successful,” Bieser added. “The job everyone did in building this new facility was phenomenal. This place is set up to be one of the top player development facilities in the country, and we will have a staff capable of producing great teams and players. I can’t wait to get started and move our family to Jacksonville.”