Mike Garza has been promoted to Associate Head Coach/Hitting/Recruiting for Rutgers baseball, head coach Steve Owens announced on Friday.
Entering his fourth season with Rutgers and second as hitting coach, Garza now also takes on the responsibilities of overseeing the program’s recruiting efforts. He previously served as the team’s volunteer assistant in 2022 and 2023.
In his first year as hitting coach in 2024, Garza led Rutgers to the Big Ten’s best batting average at .307. The team also topped the conference with 571 hits and ranked highly in several other categories: second in hit-by-pitches, third in stolen bases and triples, fourth in double plays and fielding percentage, and fifth in on-base percentage and runs.
Under Garza’s guidance, junior shortstop Josh Kuroda-Grauer earned the title of Big Ten Player of the Year, a first for Rutgers since joining the conference in 2015. Kuroda-Grauer, who hit .298 as a sophomore, led the nation with 95 hits and the Big Ten with a .428 batting average. He also added five home runs, 19 doubles, 45 RBIs, and 24 stolen bases, earning First Team All-America honors from ABCA/Rawlings and Perfect Game.
Garza is recognized as an elite developer of infielders, having mentored two All-Americans at shortstop, Kuroda-Grauer and Danny DiGeorgio. Rutgers is the only program in the country to have two different shortstops named finalists for the Brooks Wallace Award (the nation’s top shortstop) in the past three seasons.
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