Dan Fitzgerald

LSU head baseball coach Jay Johnson is in the process of filling out his coaching staff, naming the 2018 D1Baseball Assistant Coach of the Year, Jason Kelly of Arizona State, to be his pitching coach earlier in the week and planning to name Dan Fitzgerald of Dallas Baptist University as his recruiting coordinator.

Kelly’s hire was first reported by Kendall Rogers of D!Baseball.com and announced Thursday afternoon by LSU. Kelly was the last remaining member from previous ASU coach Tracy Smith’s staff after Smith’s firing. New head coach Willie Bloomquist reportedly let Kelly go after Kelly visited Baton Rouge to interview to become LSU’s pitching coach.

“I am incredibly excited to announce Jason Kelly as our pitching coach here at LSU,” Johnson said in a prepared statement. “Coach Kelly is one of the best pitching coaches in the country at any level and possesses a very complete skill set that will help our current and future pitchers at LSU reach their full potential and pitch at an elite level.

“Coach Kelly is excellent in the game in regards to his preparation and pitch calling. He is outstanding in the training environment, helping pitchers develop elite velocity, pitchability and pitch design.”

Kelly coached in the Pac-12 from 2013-2019 with the University of Washington. He served as pitching coach at Cal Poly from 2007-2012, with two of his pitchers going in the top five rounds of the draft in his first season. His 2011 Cal Poly staff recorded the best ERA in the school’s 17-year existence as a Division I program.

Before that, he helped the Chico State Wildcats reach the Division II College World Series in both of his seasons there, with his 2005 staff finishing with the sixth best ERA in the country.

Kelly was a pitcher at Cal Poly in 1999, and after redshirting in 2000, he went on to pitch at Cuesta College in 2001 and at Missouri Valley College in 2002. He is a 1998 graduate of St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria, California.

“Coach Kelly has an advanced ability using new age data and metrics to help our pitchers understand their pitch arsenal and how to best use it,” Johnson said. “Most importantly, he is great at building relationships and is a great communicator, which will help us continually recruit and develop elite pitching staffs at LSU. This is a great day for current and future LSU pitchers.”

At Washington he earned D1Baseball’s National Assistant Coach of the Year honor by helping the Huskies reach the College World Series for the first time in program history.

Fifteen of Kelly’s pitchers at Washington were selected in the MLB draft since 2013, with seven of those taken in the Top 15 rounds.

Fitzgerald’s imminent hiring also was reported first by D1Baseball.com. In nine years at Dallas Baptist as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, Fitzgerald is considered one of the top recruiters in the country.

Fitzgerald recruited nine players who went on to earn All-America honors and 11 who were eventually selected in the top-10 rounds of the Major League Baseball draft.

Dallas Baptist led its conference with 69 players on the Missouri Valley All-Conference team during Fitzgerald’s time at the school, and reached the NCAA tournament seven times in that span.

Fitzgerald was head coach at Des Moines (Iowa) Area Community College for five seasons and reached the junior college world series four times, winning five consecutive conference titles and seeing 14 players chosen in the MLB draft.