WKU Baseball Coaches Find Themselves Among Elite Company

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Last month, newly hired WKU Baseball head coach Marc Rardin was named to the Top 20 Most Impactful Coaching Hires of this offseason by D1Baseball.com. Coming in at No. 11 on the list.

The following week, newly hired WKU Baseball assistant coach Rob Fournier was named to the Top 30 Assistant Coach Hires of this offseason by D1Baseball.com, coming in at No. 14.

WKU Baseball is one of seven programs to have a top 15 most impactful head coaching hire and a top 15 assistant coach hire alongside Clemson, Florida State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State and USC. Of the seven, WKU is the only Group of Five program with a top 15 hire on each list.

Rardin on this recognition:
"I think it is an incredible honor from a media outlet in DI Baseball. It is one of the pillars of our sport. You look at Coach Fournier's success in all those years at Wabash and mine at Iowa Western, just the recognition to this point is an incredible honor. Then, you look at the company that we are within on those lists with the rankings. The reality of it is, it is now — what have you done for me lately? So with the excitement being there and without a doubt can help recruiting wise, as well as make people aware, which is always nice, but it now gets down to — it does not matter, get better. We will take that and focus on right now."

While at Iowa Western, Rardin accumulated a 983-262 (.787) record, good for an average of more than 46 wins, including a 452-69 (.868) conference/regional record and 122-43 (.739) record in postseason play. Over the past 20 years, no other DI junior college baseball program has won more games or more postseason championships than Iowa Western. Rardin was inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame in 2015.

Fournier on this recognition:
"We are really honored and proud to be recognized. As far as the hard work we have done in the past and the challenges is something that we embrace in front of us, we are fully prepared to get this program moving in the right direction. We are extremely excited about the administration, the rest of our staff, and the players that we have currently. We just cannot wait to get this ship sailing."

Before coming to WKU, Fournier spent 26 seasons as the head coach at Wabash Valley College. During that time, he accumulated 1,106 career wins while his Warrior teams won 14 Great Rivers Athletic Conference (GRAC) Championships. In his first year at the helm, he helped turn around a 12-win team to a 37-win mark in the 1997 season. The program has since rattled off 26 consecutive winning seasons, recording at least 30 wins in each campaign while collecting 17 total 40-plus-win seasons. Fournier was recently inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame this past May.

How to follow WKU Baseball: For complete information on WKU Hilltopper Baseball, visit WKUSports.com or follow the program via social media @WKU_Baseball on Twitter and @WKUBaseball Instagram.

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