Godwin, who will serve as third base and hitting coach under national team manager and current Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco, will be joined by Xan Barksdale (LSU), Drew Bianco (LSU), Scott Brown (Vanderbilt) and Josh Holliday (Oklahoma State). Barksdale will serve as assistant coach, while the trio of Bianco, Brown and Holliday will make their national team coaching debuts in 2022 and serve as bullpen coach, pitching coach, respectively. and assistant coach.
Godwin will make his second appearance for the collegiate national team after coaching third base for the 2018 team that finished 12-3 with series wins over Chinese Taipei and Japan on American soil and another against Cuba. in Havana. He also worked with the 2017 USA Baseball 14U National Development Program (NTDP).
In his eight years at the helm of the program, Godwin has guided ECU to six NCAA regional berths (regional host Greenville in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022), four super regional appearances, three NHL regular seasons American Athletic Conference and three AAC tournament crowns while posting an overall record of 304-151-1 (.668). Twenty players achieved All-America status, while 23 were NCAA All-Regional draft picks, 33 were all-conference (first 26) names, and 14 were drafted by Major League Baseball teams.
A four-time AAC Coach of the Year (2015, 2019, 2021, 2022), Godwin was inducted into the George Whitfield Hall of Fame in January 2016. During his coaching career, he has done part of 13 NCAA Regionals and two College World Series appearances.
Young rising Zach Agnos and head of ECU students Brady Austin will also join Godwin during training camp. Agnos, who is a guest on the roster, hit a .330 clip (88 for 267) with seven home runs, 42 RBIs and 56 runs scored. He shared the hits lead with Bryson Worrel and tied for first in doubles (15) with Lane Hoover and Alec Makarewicz. The Haymarket, Va. native who was named a second-team All-American by Baseball America and D1Baseball, led the club with 29 multi-hit games and finished tied for third with 10 multi-RBI contests. At one point during the season (April 1 to May 15), he had reached base safely in 25 straight games.
On the mound, he was 3-0 with three saves in 21 relief appearances. The right-hander allowed just six runs (all earned) on 11 hits in 23.1 innings while sporting a best ERA of 2.31. He struck out 19 batters and walked just six opposing batters with a .151 composite average. Agnos had wins over Elon (March 23) and South Florida (May 15 and 24), while making saves against Cincinnati (May 1), Virginia (June 4), and Texas (June 10).
The Collegiate National Team training camp will begin on June 29 and will feature 48-50 of the nation’s top undrafted eligible collegiate baseball players. Athletes will compete in a series of five intrasquad games in North Carolina before staff names a final roster of 26 players. The American team will then travel to Haarlem, the Netherlands, to participate in the Honkballweek Haarlem.
Comments are closed.