Mike Smith was named the California Baptist University softball head coach in June of 2021, which marked his second stint as the Lancers’ skipper. Smith returns to John C. Funk Stadium already owning the program’s all-time wins record as head coach at 525-96 (.838), and a national championship from the team’s 2009 NAIA title run.

In his return to Riverside, Smith led the program to its first winning season in the D-I era, closing out the 2022 schedule with a 30-26 record overall and a 12-12 record in the Western Athletic Conference. The Lancers finished third in the West Division after being voted fifth in preseason coaches polls. Though ineligible for the WAC Tournament for the fourth and final time this season, the Lancer would have qualified as the fifth-overall seed in the tournament. In 2023, Smith led the Lancers to their first Division I postseason after the squad qualified as the sixth seed in the WAC Tournament. The Lancers secured their first postseason Division I win against Tarleton in the first round the tournament, but ultimately fell in their final two games of the season.

Prior to his return to CBU, Smith headed up the Power 5 Ole Miss Rebels program of the Southeastern Conference for five seasons. The turnaround at Ole Miss under Smith's leadership was immediate, with the Rebels tying their win's record in his inaugural season before breaking it the next season and resetting it again the following year. After achieving a winning record just twice in the program's first 18 seasons, Ole Miss did so in each of Smith's five campaigns, topping 30 wins each year with three 40-plus win seasons. Smith guided the Rebels to the program's first four NCAA Tournament appearances, advancing to the Super Regional round in 2017 and 2019.

Before his time in Oxford, Smith guided McNeese State where he led the program to three-straight, 30-plus win seasons in his three years. He led McNeese State to back-to-back Southland Conference regular season championships in 2013 and 2014 and was named the Southland Conference Coach of the Year in both of those seasons. Smith's record at McNeese State was 112-53 (.679).

His longest tenure was his first eight seasons in Riverside at CBU, which were wildly successful. Aside from the national championship run, the Lancers finished in the top-six in the country all eight years, including seven years inside the top-four. The Lancers won their conference championship and advanced to the postseason all eight years, and won 60 or more games in each of Smith's final four seasons, concluding with a school-record 66 wins in 2011.

During his first stint as head coach at CBU, Smith developed top-tier talent which resulted in:

31 NAIA All-Americans
29 All-Region/District awards
Four NAIA Pitcher of the Year awards
Four Region II Player of the Year awards
Four Region II Pitcher of the Year awards
10 NAIA Scholar-Athletes
10 GSAC Scholar-Athletes
Seven GSAC Player of the Year awards
Seven GSAC Pitcher of the Year awards
Six GSAC Coach of the Year awards
53 All-GSAC awards

His first few years in a head coaching position were spent as the interim head coach at UC Riverside (2003), and in the four years prior to that he served as head coach at Biola (1999-02), where he won one league title, had a 50-win season and a 10th-place finish at the NAIA World Series.

A graduate of The Master's College in Santa Clarita, Smith was a two-time all-district pitcher on the college baseball team and went on to play in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, reaching the Class-AA level. He also played for a number of independent league teams from 1994 to 2001.

Smith was a Western Baseball League Pitcher of the Year with the Mission Viejo team in both 1997 and 1998, and in 2000 was the MVP of the WBL championship series with the St. George team.

Smith also served as a pitching coach for the Biola baseball team from 1996-98 and was a teacher and coach at Heritage Christian School in Anaheim from 1993-96, where he was head coach for baseball and boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, an assistant coach in football and an assistant athletic director.

Smith is a native of San Diego and resides in Riverside with his wife, Ellen. The couple have two children, Ashlee and Tyler.

		OVERALL			CONFERENCE
YEAR	SCHOOL	W	L	PERCENT	W	L	PERCENT	CONF.
1999	Biola	22	23	.489	5	15	.250	GSAC
2000	Biola	38	19	.667	14	10	.583	GSAC
2001	Biola	50	13	.794	19	5	.792	GSAC
2002	Biola	46	17	.730	19	9	.679	GSAC
2003	UCR	13	45	.224	4	17	.190	Big West
2004	CBU	45	15	.750	19	5	.792	GSAC
2005	CBU	55	7	.887	23	3	.885	GSAC
2006	CBU	57	7	.891	20	4	.833	GSAC
2007	CBU	59	5	.922	22	2	.917	GSAC
2008	CBU	60	8	.882	23	1	.958	GSAC
2009	CBU	61	5	.924	21	3	.875	GSAC
2010	CBU	64	4	.941	23	1	.958	GSAC
2011	CBU	66	5	.930	18	2	.900	GSAC
2012	MSU	34	21	.618	12	8	.600	Southland
2013	MSU	38	15	.717	19	5	.792	Southland
2014	MSU	40	17	.702	20	6	.769	Southland
2015	Miss	30	25	.545	6	18	.250	SEC
2016	Miss	41	22	.651	11	13	.458	SEC
2017	Miss	43	20	.683	10	14	.417	SEC
2018	Miss	32	25	.561	7	17	.292	SEC
2019	Miss	41	20	.672	13	10	.565	SEC
2022	CBU	30	26	.536	12	12	.500	WAC
2023	CBU	28	29	.491	10	14	.417	WAC
2024	CBU	33	25	.569	17	7	.708	WAC

Biola (4)		156	72	.684	57	39	.594	GSAC
UC Riverside (1)		13	45	.224	4	17	.191	Big West
California Baptist - DI		91	80	.532	39	33	.542	WAC
California Baptist - Total		558	136	.804	198	40	.832	GSAC/WAC
McNeese State (3)		112	53	.679	51	19	.729	Southland
Ole Miss (5)		187	112	.605	47	72	.395	SEC
Division I (11)		370	265	.582	124	134	.480
CAREER (21)		1,026	418	.711	367	201	.646

?? ????????-???????????? ?? Mike Smith returns to California Baptist as head coach! Most recently, Smith led Ole Miss to four NCAA Tournament appearances as well as two Super Regional berths!#LanceUp?? pic.twitter.com/Az6hawX3bs
— California Baptist Softball (@CBUSoftball) May 27, 2021

Name	Title	Email Address	Phone (951 Area Code)
Mike Smith	Head Softball Coach	msmith@calbaptist.edu	343-4452
Bill Baber	Associate Head Softball Coach	bbaber@calbaptist.edu	343-4705
Brittney Gossett	Assistant Softball Coach
Daphne Araiza	Director of Operations - Softball	daraiza@calbaptist.edu	552-8716

Upcoming Events

Results

Completed Event: Softball versus Cal State Fullerton on May 16, 2026 , Loss , 2, to, 3

Completed Event: Softball versus #8 UCLA on May 15, 2026 , Loss , 11, to, 12

Completed Event: Softball versus #2 Tarleton State University on May 9, 2026 , Win , 8, to, 2

Completed Event: Softball versus #2 Tarleton State University on May 9, 2026 , Loss , 4, to, 6

Completed Event: Softball versus #2 Tarleton State University on May 8, 2026 , Win , 12, to, 4 , (5 Inn.)

2024 Softball Coaching Staff

Coaching Staff

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