Jake Hansen, who has served the past two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the MSJC baseball team, was named the program's new head coach on Thursday according to Dean of Athletics and Kinesiology Patrick Springer.

Hansen takes over for Mike Lonsdale who stepped away from the team earlier this month to accept a full time teaching position at Imperial Valley College.  Lonsdale and Hansen worked together the past couple of seasons through the COVID-19 Pandemic where the team was only able to play a combined 29 games over two years.  During the abbreviated 2021 season the Eagles posted a record of 8-2 and had some impressive offensive numbers.  MSJC averaged 13 runs a game while batting .348 and had a state best  .484 on base percentage.

Prior to his arrival at MSJC Hansen most recently served as an assistant coach at NCAA Division II Post University where he assisted with nearly all aspects of the program including; offense, defense, recruiting, and the organization of camps.  He also has stints prior to MSJC as a high school coach, community college coach (West Hills Coalinga), and with travel ball and the Bakersfield Baseball Academy.

Hansen is looking forward to  his first head college coaching position, "I'm definitely excited and thankful for the opportunity", said Hansen, "I really want to thank Dean Springer for having the confidence in me to give me this chance, and we hope to continue to build this program in to one of the elite in the state."  Hansen went on to say, "I really want to thank all of the people that have supported me along the way including my family and the past coaches I have worked with."  "I want to say a special thank you to Coach Lonsdale, I feel like I am truly prepared for this job after working with him these past two years and learning from him."

The Eagles are already back at it on the field preparing for the 2022 season with summer school in full swing.  The team has a large group of talented returners coming back and the coaching staff is also excited about their new recruits.  "I think we have a special group to work with this year and we are just happy to be back to some normal progression after back to back years of having shortened seasons."  "It's also very helpful to me and the program that Coach Ricky Gingras is staying on the staff to help us make this transition."

MSJC posted a 16-13 record over Lonsdale's two pandemic shortened seasons, but were certainly on the upswing winning 14 of their last 18 games.