Senior Writer
CSU Bakersfield fired baseball coach Bob Macaluso on Friday, Dec. 16.
“We just got done with the fall period and it wasn’t one specific thing,” said CSUB Assistant Athletics Director for Communications Corey Costelloe. “It was determined by the administration that after last season and after the fall portion of this season that it was in the best interest of the program to go in a different direction.”
In his first season as the head coach of the CSUB baseball team, Macaluso had a record of 19-37.
Macaluso replaced retired head coach Bill Kernen, just one season after the Roadrunners won their first Western Athletic Conference title in 2014.
CSUB has chosen pitching coach Jeremy Beard as its interim head coach for the 2017 season.
Beard will be the third Roadrunners head coach in the past three seasons as well as the third in the program’s history.
“(Coach Beard) has 18 years of experience in collegiate and prep baseball, so he knows how to recruit,” said Costelloe. “He’s been very active in the recruiting process of a lot of the athletes we have now. Over the last year he’s helped sign a very competitive recruiting class for next year, so he definitely has the pedigree to be a very good baseball coach.”
Beard started with the program in the 2015-2016 season.
Beard is an 18-year veteran of the sport and played his college baseball at Oregon State University.
“I am confident in Coach Beard’s ability and commitment to manage the baseball program this season,” CSUB Athletics Director Kenneth Siegfried stated in a press release. “He has shown me that he is committed to the vision of the department by promoting academic excellence, providing an outstanding student-athlete experience, pursuing competitive success and engaging our community.”
