Coastal’s Kevin Schnall named a top assistant by D1 Baseball
CONWAY – Coastal Carolina associate head baseball coach Kevin Schnall was named one of the top assistant coaches in the NCAA asD1Baseball.com released its list of the top 15 premier assistant coaches for 2018.
Washington pitching coach Jason Kelly topped the list, followed by (in alphabetical order by school) Nate Thompson (Arkansas), Jon Strauss (Baylor),Schnall (Coastal), Josh Jordan (Duke), Cory Barton (Louisiana Tech), Rob Fornasiere (Minnesota), Jake Gautreau (Mississippi State), Mike Clement (Mississippi), Pat Bailey (Oregon State), Steve Holm (Purdue), Sean Allen (Texas), J-Bob Thomas (Texas Tech), Chad Caillet (Southern Miss) and Dave Therneau (Stetson).
D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers said of Schnall, “(he) continues to be the chief architect for the Chanticleers. He was there when the Chants got things going earlier in the Gilmore era, and he’s been a huge part of their success the past few seasons, too. Schnall is considered to be a strong evaluator and recruiter and has a bright future as a head coach someday.”
Schnall helped Coastal be a 2018 national seed in the NCAA tournament, host an NCAA Regional, win its second Sun Belt regular season title and sweep its way through to the Sun Belt tournament championship. Four Chants were named All-American (Seth Lancaster, Kevin Woodall Jr., Cory Wood and Zach Biermann) while Parker Chavers became the most decorated Freshman All-American in school history. As a team, Coastal ranked third in the NCAA in walks, fourth in doubles, fifth in runs scored, seventh in on base percentage, eight in slugging percentage and ninth in home runs.
Prior to the 2018 season, Baseball America had Schnall listed sixth among the top assistant coaches in the nation. The publication periodically surveys college head coaches (the last time being 2012 with Schnall ranking seventh) to compile a list of 10 assistants with bright futures as head coaches.
Schnall provided an instant impact in 2016 when he returned to his alma mater after three seasons on the staff at Central Florida and helped Coastal Carolina to its first national championship. In fact, Coastal led the nation in home runs with 96 in 2016 and ranked 24th nationally by averaging 1.19 home runs per game in 2017.
A total of seven Chanticleers that came to Coastal under Schnall’s watch have played Major League Baseball, including David Sappelt, Mike Costanzo, Tommy La Stella, Keith Hessler, Rico Noel, Taylor Motter and Jacob May.
Story written by: Coastal Athletics
