Ball State University Baseball

Click here for Rich Maloney's printable bio Ball State Head Baseball Coach (1996-2002 and 2013-Present) Career Head Coaching Record (entering 2026 season): 1...

Returning to Ball State as an assistant coach, Alex Maloney enters his fourth season assisting with day-to-day operations and serving as the recruiting coordinator along with working with hitters and catchers in 2026. Maloney coached First Team All-MAC hitters in outfielder Blake Bevis, shortstop Dylan Grego and second baseman Nick Husovsky along with Second Team third baseman Alex Richter, a quartet that carried the Cardinals to the third-most home runs in a season (89) in program history. Grego's 91 hits on the year were the third-most in a season for a Ball State player, while Bevis upped his career home run total to 41 with 18 in 2025 to move in to fourth place for the most in a career in program history. The Cardinals led the MAC with 595 total hits on the year. Defensively, Ball State finished the regular season with the top fielding percentage (.984) in NCAA Division I. In 2024, Maloney coached a Cardinals group that finished third in the Mid-American Conference regular season standing and runners-up in the MAC Tournament. Shortstop Michael Hallquist hit the second-most home runs in program history (21) with the help of Maloney. Left-handed pitcher Merritt Beeker was recruited by Maloney in the transfer portal from East Carolina before a 2024 MAC Pitcher of the Year performance and 11th round selection in the MLB Draft by the Washington Nationals. He helped the Cardinals to a Mid-American Conference championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2023 while sporting

Justin Wechsler was named the pitching coach in June of 2023. He begins his third season as an assistant coach in 2026. Ball State had a pair of All-Conference pitchers in 2025 under Wechsler's tutelage, as sophomore Keegan Johnson was voted First Team All-MAC, and senior Jacob Hartlaub landed on the Second Team. The Cardinals has the second-best strikeouts per nine innings rate (8.8) in the Mid-American Conference. Wechsler also developed right-handers Garrett Harker and Owen Quinn into one of the top relief duos in the league. Wechsler developed 2024 Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Year Merritt Beeker and Freshman Pitcher of the Year Johnson in his first year at the helm. Both were also voted First Team All-MAC, while Beeker's 128 strikeouts were the third-most in a single season in program history. Beeker would later be drafted by the Washington Nationals in the 11th round of the 2024 MLB Draft. Wechsler is no stranger to Ball State, as he was a pitcher for the Cardinals from 1999-2001. During his time at BSU, he was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball and was tabbed to the Baseball America Freshman All-American Second Team. He was voted the Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year in 1999. He was a two-time All-MAC Second Team honoree and pitched on two teams that won MAC regular season titles (1999 and 2001). The 1999 team was recently inducted into the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame. During his 1999 season, Wechsler recorded the most wins

The Ball State baseball team announced the hire of Luke Jaksich as an assistant coach for the program in August 2025. Jaksich, a Ball State alumnus, was a le...