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California Baptist University
Mike SMith

Mike Smith

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
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