The University of Pittsburgh has announced the hiring of Mike Bell as the school’s new head baseball coach. The hiring concludes a coaching search that began on June 22, following the resignation of longtime coach Joe Jordano.
Bell comes to Pitt following an impressive eight-year stint as the associate head coach at Florida State. Prior to working with the Seminoles, Bell had stops at Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Florida Southern.
Bell has a reputation of being a strong recruiter. D1baseball.com named him the 13th best recruiter in the country prior to the 2017 season and Florida State’s current 2018 recruiting class ranks 9th in the country and second in the ACC.
Bell’s other area of expertise is as a pitching coach. He has had 47 pitchers drafted during his 16 seasons as a pitching coach. During his time at Tennessee, he was able to work with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 MLB Draft, Luke Hochevar.
In his seven years with his alma-mater of Florida State, he has been a part of two trips to Omaha (2012, 2017). He also was on the staff for Tennessee’s run to the College World Series in 2005 and Oklahoma’s in 2010. Bell also played in Omaha for Florida State in 1994 and 95.
Bell will be tasked with replacing Joe Jordano, one of the more successful coaches in Pitt history. In his 21 years as the Panthers’ coach, he had 49 players drafted and was twice named the Big East Coach of the Year (2004, 2013).
The Panthers return a strong nucleus, especially in the pitching department. Derek West, a 28th round selection by the Atlanta Braves, opted to return to school. He posted a 3.24 ERA in 50 innings as a sophomore.
Pitt is also bringing in the 42nd ranked recruiting class by PerfectGame.org. Two members of the class were drafted in Billy Corcoran and Mason Ronan, but both reaffirmed their commitments to Pitt.
Mike Bell will also be tasked with returning the program to the NCAA Tournament, something it has not done since 1995. Pitt has only made the tournament three times in the program’s history, with just one conference championship as well.
Pitt made history this past season by qualifying for the ACC tournament for the first time ever since it joined the league back in 2013. The Panthers went on a run and defeated top-seeded North Carolina before falling in the semifinals to Louisville.
The hiring of Bell follows a recent trend by the Pitt athletic department of hiring coaches that have been well-respected assistants within the ACC. Jeff Capel was a longtime Duke assistant coach before accepting the men’s basketball job at Pitt earlier this year, and Lance White spent a long time at Florida State before coming to Pitt to guide the women’s basketball program.
