Arizona has made the NCAA Tournament each of Chip Hale’s four seasons as head coach, but it was the addition of Kevin Vance as pitching coach two years ago that took the program to another level.
The work Vance did to elevate the Wildcats’ pitching staff was inevitably going to result in him getting a head coaching job, and that appears to have happened. Kirk Kenney of the San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that Vance will be hired by San Diego State as head coach.
It would be the first head coaching opportunity for the 34-year-old Vance, who is a San Diego native. He replaces Shaun Cole, who coached the Aztecs for two seasons after serving as their pitching coach for four years. Cole also spent six years at Arizona from 2009-14 and was the pitching coach for the Wildcats’ 2012 national championship team.
Arizona has reportedly quickly moved to fill Vance’s opening, with D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers reporting that director of pitching performance and strategy John DeRouin will be promoted to pitching coach.
Since coming to Arizona from Boston College, Vance and DeRouin have transformed the Wildcats’ arms. In 2024 they led Division in walks allowed per nine innings (2.56) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.56) and this season ranks 8th and 12th nationally, respectively.
In their first year together, Arizona’s three weekend starters and its closer were taken in the 2024 MLB Draft. This year’s rotation was anchored by sophomore Owen Kramkowski and freshman Smith Bailey, each of whom started 18 games including one each in the College World Series.
Vance’s departure could have led to a pitching exodus to the transfer portal and impacted Arizona’s 2025 recruiting class, though retaining DeRouin could lessen that. Several of the pitchers the UA signed in November could get drafted next month.
The 25-year-old DeRouin would be Arizona’s third pitching coach under Hale. Dave Lawn was retained from Jay Johnson’s final staff in 2022 and handled pitchers for two seasons before moving on to an assistant position at TCU.
Prior to coming to Arizona, DeRouin spent two seasons in the Detroit Tigers organization as its pitching rehab specialist.