OMAHA. Neb. (NCBWA) Indiana head coach Tracy Smith collected some individual hardware in Omaha before his Hoosiers play their first College World Series game in program history on Saturday night against Louisville. Smith was named the sixth recipient of the 2013 National College Baseball Writers Association Coach of the Year on Saturday morning in a vote by the NCBWA board of directors.
The Hoosiers' eighth-year head coach guided his squad to an historic season in 2013 as Indiana enters the CWS having reeled off a program-record 48 wins, including a 17-7 mark in Big Ten play, which gave the Hoosiers their first outright conference title since 1949.
Smith, who was named the unanimous Big Ten Coach of the Year prior to the conference tournament, saw nine of his Hoosiers named to the All-Big Ten team, including Pitcher of the Year Aaron Slegers. After the record-breaking regular season, Smith and his IU squad then secured its second NCAA regional berth (2009) during his tenure by winning the Big Ten tournament title at Target Field in Minneapolis.
The 4-3 victory over Nebraska in the title game allowed the Hoosiers to host the Bloomington Regional on their home field and IU's three straight triumphs set up a NCAA Super Regional against No. 7 national-seed Florida State in Tallahassee. The Super Regional berth was another first for the Hoosier program and the men from IU made quick work of the Seminoles, scoring double-digit runs in a two-game sweep of FSU that clinched the program's first berth in the CWS.
Smith's post at IU is his second head coaching job at the collegiate level. He turned around the program at his alma mater, Miami (Ohio), before returning to Bloomington as the head coach in 2006. He spent the 1995-96 seasons as IU's pitching coach before winning 317 games at Miami and leading the RedHawks to the 2000 and 2005 NCAA Tournament.
NCBWA membership includes writers, broadcasters and publicists. Designed to promote and publicize college baseball, it is the sport's only college media-related organization, founded in 1962.
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NCBWA Coach of the Year