VIDEO: Green introduced as Cougs new baseball coach

Brian Green was introduced as the 17th baseball coach in Washington State history by Director of Athletics Patrick Chun at a press conference Wednesday.

Green comes to WSU after five seasons as the head coach at his alma mater New Mexico State where he led the Aggies to a 2019 Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship and an NCAA Regional appearance in 2018.

Green led NMSU to an historic four-year stretch that saw the Aggies record 34 wins or more in each of the last four seasons and also signed four-straight nationally recognized recruiting classes along the way. Green has appeared in nine NCAA Regionals as a head coach or assistant coach at the Division I level.

"For over a century, there has been a storied history associated with Washington State Baseball," said Chun. "That history includes NCAA Tournament and College World Series appearances as well as a tremendous group of alumni that have done some extraordinary things with their respective lives beyond Cougar Baseball. The next chapter of our history begins today.

"Bringing Becki, Emily, Zoe and Brian Green to the Coug Family is our first step in the new chapter," Chun continued. "Coach Green is an exact fit for Washington State baseball. He is focused on family, recruits to his core values, develops the entire student-athlete and has proven to be an extraordinary builder of teams. We welcome the Green Family to the WSU Family and are ecstatic to work together to add to our storied history."

In his five years at NMSU, Green produced nine All-Americans including three 2019 first-team selections, 26 All-WAC honorees, a pair of Player of the Year selections, one Pitcher of the Year, one Freshman of the Year, and 22 WAC All-Academic selections.

Since 2016, Green has helped send 12 players to the professional ranks, including a trio of top six round picks the last three years.

"It's hard to find the words to describe my excitement level of being named the 17th Head Coach in Washington State Baseball history!" said Green. "With the leadership team that Pat Chun has put together, the facility upgrades about to break ground, and the fact that it's Washington State and the Pac-12, this is unbelievable. We can't wait to immerse ourselves into this great community and get this program fired up. What a great day! Go Cougs!"

Green's offense finished the 2019 regular season with a NMSU-record .356 batting average and led the country in batting average, runs, runs per game, hits, triples, on base percentage, slugging percentage and hit by pitch. Individually, shortstop Joey Ortiz was named the WAC Player of the Year, a semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace Award (best shortstop in the country) and Dick Howser Award (best player in the country) while second baseman Nick Gonzales was also a semifinalist for the Howser Award and the Golden Spikes Award (national player of the year).

Defensively, the Aggies posted an impressive .974 fielding percentage a year after breaking the single-season school record with a .977 clip in 2018. On the mound, Green watched Chance Hroch put together one of the best seasons by an Aggie pitcher in program history, finishing with a 10-1 mark and a 2.74 ERA in 15 starts while earning first team All-Conference accolades.

Off the field, Green's program earned the NMSU Athletics Community Service Award for the fourth straight year in 2019 and set the program attendance record for the fourth time since 2015. The program accumulated over 6,000 hours of Community Service since Green took over the program.