Josh Holliday Hires Oregon Pitching Coach Blake Hawksworth

For just the second time since taking over as the Cowboys’ coach ahead of the 2013 season, Josh Holliday is set to hire a pitching coach.

Oklahoma State is hiring Oregon’s Blake Hawksworth, according to reports from D1Baseball and Duck Territory on Monday. OSU made the hire official Wednesday. Hawksworth spent two seasons at Oregon before this move. He’s a former big leaguer, playing in 124 MLB games across three seasons (two with the St. Louis Cardinals and one with the Los Angeles Dodgers).

“I spoke with people all across the country about who the top pitching minds in the game were and what made them special,” said Holliday in OSU’s release. “We wanted someone who could really connect with our pitchers on a personal level while providing top-level instruction to them in the pursuits of performance excellence.

“Blake’s unique background as a player in Major League Baseball and now as a coach has introduced him to some of the brightest minds in the game, and his pitching knowledge gained as a performer and now that of a modern baseball instructor and coach is going to really bring a lot to the program. Our pitchers will enjoy his personality, his life experience, his mentorship and his passion for teaching and developing, and he’s a great fit with our staff as we create an awesome learning environment with all the modern tools at our disposal.”

In Hawksworth’s first year with Oregon, the Ducks’ pitching staff combined to strikeout 550 batters in 535 1/3 innings. The 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings was the third most in program history. Oregon also won 40 games in his first season in Eugene, where the Ducks made it to Supers.

Oregon won even more games in Hawksworth’s second year. The Ducks went 42-16 but dropped their opening two games of the Eugene Regional. Oregon had a 4.10 team ERA this past season and struck out 502 batters in 504 2/3 innings.

Hawksworth was a 28th-round pick in the 2001 MLB Draft by the Cardinals. He worked his way up through the organization before making his major league debut in 2009. He finished his rookie year with a 2.03 ERA across 40 innings pitched. Hawksworth threw 90 1/3 innings in 2010 with St. Louis, where he had a 4.98 ERA. He left St. Louis for LA ahead of the 2011 season, where he threw 53 innings across 49 appearances and had a 4.08 ERA with the Dodgers.

Before making the move to Eugene, Hawksworth was the director of baseball operations at UC-Irvine during the 2023 season, helping the Anteaters to a 38-17 record.

He was a pitching coach at the high school level in 2021 and 2022 at JSerra in San Juan Capistrano, California, where he helped the Lions to their first CIF championships in school history.

Hawksworth was Grand Canyon’s pitching coach in 2020. The season was just 18 games long before the pandemic, but the Lopes had a 3.44 ERA.

His first college job was being the pitching coach at Cal State-Fullerton in 2017, a year in which the Titans posted a 3.64 ERA which ranked 29th nationally.

“I’m incredibly honored and excited to join the Oklahoma State baseball program,” Hawksworth said. “This is a storied program with a tradition of excellence, and I’m grateful to Coach Holliday and the entire staff for the opportunity. I look forward to developing our pitchers both on and off the field, competing at the highest level and helping bring championships to Stillwater. Go Pokes!”

Holliday’s hire is necessary after longtime pitching coach Rob Walton retired at the end of this past season.