Kent State Baseball Camps

It took just two seasons for Scott Stricklin to earn Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year honors after leading Kent State to a MAC regular season championship in 2006. And one year later, Stricklin had his alma mater playing in an NCAA Regional.  In his three seasons at Kent State, Stricklin's teams have a combined 104-65 record.  His 2007 team finished 33-26 with a 19-8 first-place finish in the MAC East.

Kent State summoned an unprecedented run to close the 2007 regular season.  After opening the season with a 17 and 23 record, Strickin's team posted wins in 12 of its final 13 games to win the MAC East Division and enter the conference tournament as the number two seed.  In the tournament, Kent State's pitching-laden squad claimed four more consecutive wins, never allowing the opposition more than three runs.  The highlight of the 2007 tournament run was back-to-back 3-2 wins against Eastern Michigan on the Eagles' home field.

 And as has become tradition for KSU, the off-season brought not only jewelry, but draft choices as well.  For the second straight year, five players signed professional contracts and pitcher Chris Carpenter took part in arguably the most prestigious of summer leagues - the Cape Cod League.

The Golden Flashes finished 38-19 in 2006, including a MAC best 19-7 mark in conference play. KSU advanced to the championship game of the ‘06 MAC Tournament and placed six players on the All-MAC First Team. Midway through his second season, Stricklin earned career victory number 50, on Apr. 11, 2006 at Duquesne. Following the season, five players from the 2006 team signed professional contracts.

In 2005, Stricklin led the Golden Flashes to a 33-win season, the second most victories by a MAC-East team.

Now in his fourth year, Stricklin became the 16th head baseball coach at Kent State in July of 2004, replacing long-time head coach Rick Rembielak who accepted the head coaching position at Wake Forest.

The appointment was Stricklin’s first head coaching job at any level and according to those who know him best, is a perfect fit to continue the tradition and excellence of Kent State baseball.

Stricklin, 36, returned to Kent State after serving his previous three seasons as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Georgia Tech under former Kent State head coach Danny Hall. Stricklin was responsible for the Yellow Jackets’ hitters while working with the catchers and serving as the team’s first base coach. Stricklin, who also was a volunteer coach at Georgia Tech from 1998-99, rejoined Hall’s staff in July 2001 after spending the previous two years as pitching coach at Vanderbilt in 2000-01.

“This has been a very exciting opportunity to come back to Kent State,” Stricklin said. “It was an honor to take over a program that has had such great tradition. This is an exciting time for this program because of the generosity of the Schoonover family and the stadium project and under the leadership of Laing Kennedy, I feel this program is starting to take the next step.”

In his role as Georgia Tech’s recruiting coordinator, Stricklin landed a recruiting class that was ranked No. 1 in the nation by both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball in 2002. That class included a pair of second round draft picks in Micah Owings and Tyler Greene, the highest drafted players ever to enroll at Georgia Tech, in addition to the highly regarded Jason Neighborgall. The Yellow Jackets’ 2003 recruiting class also was ranked among the best in the nation.

As the recruiting coordinator at Vanderbilt, Stricklin attracted a nationally-ranked recruiting class in his final year with the Commodores that was ranked seventh in the nation by Baseball America magazine.

Stricklin’s first year back at Georgia Tech was extremely successful as the Yellow Jackets won a school-record 52 games and advanced to the College World Series in 2002. Under Stricklin’s direction, Yellow Jacket hitters produced one of the most successful seasons ever. The Yellow Jackets hit .330 as a team, including six regulars who batted .340 or higher, and averaged more than eight runs per game. Georgia Tech was the top hitting team in the 2002 College World Series with a .392 team batting average.

The Yellow Jackets were equally proficient on the basepaths, stealing an ACC-high 130 bases during the season, the highest total at Tech in 18 years.

In 2003, Stricklin helped lead the Yellow Jackets to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship by sweeping North Carolina, Florida State and North Carolina State on the final day of the tournament in the first triple-header in ACC history. Tech averaged nearly eight runs per game, and the Yellow Jackets topped 100 stolen bases for the second consecutive season.

Stricklin’s defensive work with Tech’s catchers paid off as the Yellow Jackets allowed just 86 stolen bases in 130 games over two seasons. Tech’s catchers threw out nearly 35% of all attempted base stealers.

In 2004, Stricklin helped the Yellow Jackets to a 44-21 record and a return trip to the NCAA Super Regional.

A class-A all-star in 1994, Stricklin played five seasons of minor league baseball, retiring in the spring of 1998 after a major league spring training stint with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Following his selection by the Minnesota Twins in the 23rd round of the June 1993 draft, he played the 1994 and 1995 seasons in the Twins organization, reaching the triple-A level. He signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves in 1996, playing double-A ball at Greenville and then with the Tampa Bay organization in 1997.

Stricklin lettered three seasons as a catcher at Kent State for Hall. He earned All-Mid-American Conference honors in 1992 and 1993 and was named to the 1993 NCAA South II Regional All-Tournament team. In those two seasons, he handled pitching staffs ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation in earned-run average. 

Stricklin graduated magna cum laude from Kent State in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Stricklin and his wife Cheri have one daughter Sydney, 4, and son Cale, 2.  The couple also welcomed Keaton Rose into the world on Nov. 6 2007.