In his 35 years as a head baseball coach. Stanford’s Mark Marquess has seen and done a lot. Marquess enters his 36th season as head coach as his alma mater as the seventh-winningest coach in college baseball history with 1,422 wins and a .647 winning percentage.

Marquess has led the Cardinal to 27 NCAA Tournaments and 14 College World Series, with national championships in 1987 and 1988.

In this exclusive interview with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires, Marquess reveals how he has changed the most as a head coach since his first game in 1977, how the game of college baseball has changed in that time, what he would change about college baseball, marquee series with Texas, Vanderbilt and Rice this year, and more!

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Stanford Head Coach Mark Marquess -  Career record: 1422-741-7

Milestone Wins
1st Career Win (February 4, 1977 vs. USF, 6-1)
1000th Career Win (February 9, 2001 vs. Florida State, 6-2)
1100th Career Win (February 17, 2003 vs. Nevada 5-4)
1200th Career Win (March 5, 2005 vs. Cal 10-3)
1300th Career Win (April 6, 2008 vs. Arizona State 10-2)
100th Career Postseason Win (June 7, 2003 vs. Long Beach State 4-2)

• 2 NCAA Titles
• 14 CWS Appearances
• 7 Super Regional Appearances (6 Titles)
• 27 Regional Appearances (14 Titles)
• 12 Conference Titles

Jim Penders led UConn to a 2011 NCAA Regional win at Clemson before falling to South Carolina in Super Regional play.

The last two seasons have been nearly unprecedented for the Connecticut baseball team. Jim Penders led the Huskies to the program’s first Super Regional in 2011 before falling to eventual national champion South Carolina. UConn has won 93 games over the last two seasons after winning 45 games last year, while becoming the third Big East school to advance to a Super Regional.

Penders must now reload after losing home grown products George Springer and Matt Barnes in the first round of last year’s first year MLB Draft. In this exclusive interview with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires, Penders discusses his team’s success last season, replacing the two aforementioned Connecticut natives, how the Nutmeg State has come to produce other top talent like other college standouts Jason Esposito, A.J. Pollock and Matt Harvey, the one thing he would change about college baseball, and more.

Click the “Play” button below to listen to the interview.

Penders.mp3

The 2011 season was a big one for Troy baseball and Tyler Hannah. The Trojans won 43 games and a Sun Belt Conference regular season championship en-route to an NCAA Regional berth.

Hannah played a big role in his team’s success, with a team-high .370 batting average, 27 doubles, .591 slugging percentage, and .477 on-base percentage.

In this podcast with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires, the preseason All-American discusses his big season, his team’s fortunes and prospects for 2012.

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Hannah

Tyler Hannah – 6’0 – 195 – Sr. – Gardendale, AL

Head Coach:  Bobby Pierce

Preston Tucker at the plate during the 2011 College World Series

Florida has been to the College World Series in each of the past two seasons. Preston Tucker has been there for each of those trips and is back for a chance to win a national championship in 2012.

The senior was drafted in the 16th round by the Colorado Rockies last year, but opted to return to Gainesville instead of turning pro. His return means the Gators return almost everyone from a team that was the national runner-up in Omaha in 2011.

Despite the arrival of BBCOR bats to college baseball, Tucker still had a monster bat last year, batting .308 with 15 home runs, a team-high 74 RBIs, 23 doubles, and a .926 OPS.

In this exclusive interview with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires, Tucker discusses his decision to return for his final year at Florida, the reason for his personal success at the plate with the new bats, his teammates, coaches, his team’s chances to win a national championship and more.

Press the “Play” button below to listen to the podcast interview.

Tucker

LSU was the talk of college baseball on NCAA selection Monday in 2011. Paul Mainieri’s Tigers, two seasons removed from a national championship, missed the SEC Tournament, but still managed 36 wins. LSU was not picked to the NCAA Tournament field of 64 in 2011, but is considered by many a favorite to make it all the way to the College World Series in 2012.

In this exclusive interview with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires, Mainieri discusses the disappointment of missing last year’s tournament, his youthful pitching staff from a year ago that is now full of seasoned veterans, the three pitchers who are battling to fill the closer role vacated by former All-American Matt Ott, what drew him to hire new pitching coach Alan Dunn, what he would change if he could change one thing about college baseball, and much more.

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Mainieri

Brian O'Connor being interviewed by ESPN's Jenn Brown during the 2011 CWS

The last three seasons have been unprecedented for head coach Brian O’Connor and the Virginia baseball team. The Cavaliers are coming off their second trip to the College World Series in the last three years, with a Super Regional appearance sandwiched between the trips to Omaha.

Most of the players, including All-American two-way player Danny Hultzen, are gone from those two teams though. The roster turnover leaves O’Connor and his coaching staff faced with the new challenge of restocking not only the entire weekend pitching rotation, but also most of the everyday lineup.

In this exclusive interview with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires, O’Connor discusses those challenges and more – including the one thing he would change if he were king of college baseball for a day.

Press the “Play” button below to listen to the interview.

O\’Connor.mp3

Justin Jones in the Cal dugout in Omaha

The Cal baseball program ran the gamut of emotions during the 2010-2011 year. The Golden Bears experienced the lowest of lows when they thought their program would be eliminated, and then propelled themselves to the highest of highs-with a run to the 2011 College World Series.

Junior pitcher Justin Jones was there every step of the way. In this exclusive interview with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires, Jones discusses his team’s run to Omaha as well as the aftereffects.

He was not able to pitch at the CWS due to an injury he suffered in a Super Regional win over Dallas Baptist, so how is his arm now?

His other revelations include why he decided to remain a Golden Bear rather than transfer to another school after the announcement that Cal baseball would be cut after the 2011 season, who he would take a bullet for, who he would step in front of a car for, and which actor would play him if a movie is ever made about Cal’s unbelievable season.

Press the “play” button below to listen to the podcast.

Justin Jones – 6’2 – 188 – Jr. – LHP – Oakdale, CA

Head Coach:  David Esquer

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In a season where the new BBCOR bat standards have seen offensive numbers drop across college baseball, Jason Krizan has defied the odds. The Dallas Baptist outfielder is batting a robust .419 with 10 home runs and 81 RBIs, while leading the nation with 39 doubles.

Krizan’s team has defied the odds as well this year. In just the independent school’s sixth season as a Division One program Dallas Baptist finds itself in a Super Regional this weekend taking on California for the right to advance to the College World Series.

In this exclusive interview with Collegebaseball360.com editor Sean Stires, Krizan discusses how his team was able to beat both TCU and Oklahoma (both 2010 CWS teams) to win the Ft. Worth Regional. He also covers his success with the new bats as well as getting drafted this week by the Detroit Tigers and more!

Krizan

Jason Krizan – 6’0 – OF – Pflugerville, TX

Head Coach – Dan Heefner

There’s not much Texas head coach Augie Garrido hasn’t done in his 43 years as a college baseball coach, so he managed to find a new challenge off the field – writing a book. The winningest coach coach in NCAA Division One history is the author the the recently released book Life Is Yours To Win – Lessons Forged from the Purpose, Passion, and Magic of Baseball.

In this exclusive interview with Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires, the coach of six national championship teams discusses why he decided to write a book, as well as contents like “Buddah at Bat” and “The Fearless Field”.

Garrido also covers this year’s team, which is the #7 national seed in this year’s tournament, as well as changes that could be coming to the tournament format.

Interview Part 1

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Interview Part 2

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Save on 2011 College World Series apparel as well as authentic college baseball caps from teams like LSU, Texas, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UCLA, South Carolina, Miami and more at Dugouthats.com!

The New Mexico baseball team is the biggest story to come from the 2011 college baseball conference tournament weekend. Ray Birmingham‘s squad entered the Mountain West Conference Tournament 24 games under .500 and knowing their only chance to get into the NCAA Tournament was to win the whole thing.

That’s what they did.

The Lobos beat #3 seed BYU, #2 seed Utah and #1 seed TCU twice to garner the program’s second straight NCAA bid (and just their second bid since 1962 as well).

In this exclusive interview with Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires, Birmingham discusses his team’s run through the MWC, the 1-and-17 mark his team posted against the likes of Arizona State, Arizona and Oklahoma during the regular season, how that competition made them better, where his “kick down the door” mentality came from, and more.

The Lobos (20-39) are the #4 seed in the Tempe Regional and face the same Sun Devils they faced to open the season on Friday.

Birmingham

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Ray Birmingham,left, and Stanford head coach Mark Marquess go over ground rules with home plate umpire Paul Guille before the start of the 2010 NCAA Fullerton regional.

Right now, you can save 20% on everything – even sale items -  in stock at Dugouthats.com when you enter the coupon code CB360.

Save on 2011 College World Series apparel as well as authentic college baseball caps from teams like LSU, Texas, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UCLA, South Carolina, Miami and more at Dugouthats.com!