Baseball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- salukibaseball@siu.edu
- Phone:
- 618-453-3794
Lance Rhodes begins his sixth season at the helm of the Saluki baseball program in 2025. He enters the season with a 159-96 overall record in five seasons.
YEAR FIVE HIGHLIGHTS
- Guided SIU to a 33-27 overall record and a 12-15 mark in MVC play; tied for sixth in MVC.
- Six Salukis earned All-MVC Honors.
- Aidan Foeller and Steven Loden were named to the Second Team. Cole Christman, Easton Dermody, Anthony Pron and Mathieu Vallee picked up Honorable Mention accolades.
- Saw one player selected in the 2024 MLB Draft (Aidan Foeller - 11th Round, Pick 340 - Los Angelos Dodgers).
- Finished second in the MVC in hits (600), doubles (121), walks (323) and strikeouts per nine innings (8.7).
- Led the Salukis to a 30-27 overall record and a 15-12 mark in MVC play; tied for third in MVC.
- Six Salukis earned All-MVC Honors.
- Pier-Olivier Boucher, Cole Christman, Jake Combs and Steven Loden were named to the Second Team Team while Paul Bonzagni and Matt Schark picked up Honorable Mention accolades.
- Saw two players selected in the 2023 MLB Draft (Pier-Olivier Boucher - 10th Round, Pick 309 - Atlanta Braves); (Paul Bonzagni - 12th Round, Pick 351 - Texas Rangers).
- Led the MVC in batting average (.286), stolen bases (74).
- Led the nation with 61 double plays turned in 57 games.
- Second in the MVC in hits (575), home runs per game (1.39), slugging percentage (.477) and stolen bases per game (1.26).
THREE YEAR HIGHLIGHTS
- MVC Record: 31-18 (2; there was no MVC season in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic).
- MVC regular season title in 2022. The school's first since 1990 and its eighth ever.
- 84 wins over the last two seasons, the third most in SIU history.
- SIU is the MVC's winningest program over the last two seasons, 31 conference wins.
- Has the second-best win % in Saluki history, .696. (Joe Lutz #1 .727)
- The fastest coach to 96 wins in SIU history (138 games) since Itchy Jones reached 96 wins in 118 games (1970-72).
- Team finished first or second in the MVC in batting average, hits, runs, home runs, RBIs, and slugging percentage in each of last two seasons (2020 and 2021).
- First or second in the MVC in batting average all three seasons.
- Pitching: School record 494 strikeouts in 2021 and #2 in 2022, 478.
- Pitching: First, second, or third in the MVC in ERA in all three seasons. 2020 (#3), 2021 (#2) and 2022 (#1).
- W-L Record: 44-16, 16-5. The school's third winningest season ever (44) and the school's winningest MVC season (16) since 2003 (17).
- MVC Regular Season Champion. The school's first since 1990. Won or swept all seven MVC series.
- Runner up in the MVC post season tournament (4-2). The school's highest tourney finish since 2012.
- Seven All-Conference honorees, including Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year (Kaeber Rog).Â
- Only team in the country to win all of its weekend series.
- Never lost consecutive MVC games.
- Never lost more than two games in a row.
- Season-high eight game winning streak in May, seven of them were MVC games.
- Set school record for home runs in one season for the second years in a row, 88.Â
- Drove in the second most runs in school history, 422 (7.03Â per game)
- Scored the second most runs in school history, 459 (7.6 per game)
- 31-3 when it scored first in games.
- Pitching: MVC #1 ERA, 4.89
- Pitching: MVC #2 in strikeouts, 478 (8.11 per 9 IP).
Lance Rhodes has transformed Saluki Baseball into an offensive powerhouse and one of the winningest programs in the nation in his first four seasons as head coach of the Salukis (2020 to 2023).
In Rhodes' first season at SIU, the 2020 Salukis went 12-6, including a win over Pac-12 powerhouse USC, and were named the Missouri Valley Conference's surprise team by D1Baseball. Offensively, SIU led the MVC in batting average, hits, walks, doubles, on-base percentage, and stolen bases. The Salukis ranked among the national leaders in stolen bases (fourth), walks (14th), doubles (16th), and hits (17th).Â
His first full season (2021) was even better. Rhodes guided the Salukis to the program's first 40-win season since 1990. The season included a 14-0 start, the best-ever for the program, and a 19-game winning streak that overlapped the end of the 2020 season and the start of the 2021 season, which was the second-longest winning streak in school history. SIU posted nine wins over top-100 RPI teams, and seven of those wins were in true road games, and five wins over top-40 RPI opponents.Â
Offensively, SIU shattered the program's record for single-season home runs, hitting 84 (previous record was 75). SIU ranked in the top-30 nationally (of 286) in nearly every offensive category: batting average, hits, doubles, homers, triples, slugging percentage, sacrifice flies, runs scored, and runs per game.Â
SIU's excellence under Rhodes extends beyond the offense. Defensively, the two highest fielding percentage teams in program history were the 2020 and 2021 Salukis, and SIU led the MVC and ranked in the top-10 nationally in turning double plays both seasons. On the mound, SIU ranked has been among the national leaders in shutouts and has finished first to third in the MVC in ERA in each of his three seasons.
A proven recruiter, Rhodes has signed nationally ranked junior college recruiting classes in each of his first two seasons at SIU, including the nation's No. 10 ranked junior college class in 2020. This comes after he signed three-straight top-35 national recruiting classes as the recruiting coordinator at Missouri from 2016-19, and his 2019 class at Mizzou was ranked No. 17 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball.
Lance Rhodes was introduced as the eighth head coach in the history of Saluki Baseball on June 20, 2019. Rhodes came to SIU after serving as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Missouri.Â
Rhodes led turnarounds at his previous coaching stops at Southeast Missouri and Missouri. After Rhodes arrived at Southeast Missouri St. in 2013 with head coach Steve Bieser, the Redhawks won three-straight Ohio Valley Conference championships from 2014-16, culminating in an OVC Tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2016. In Rhodes' final three years in Cape Girardeau, Mo., the Redhawks went 112-64 (.636) overall and 67-23 (.744) in the OVC. Three of Southeast's first five 35+ win seasons all-time came under Rhodes, including a school-record 39 wins in 2016.Â
In Rhodes first season at Missouri in 2017, the Tigers won 36 games, the most for the program since 2008. In Rhodes' three seasons at Missouri, the Tigers won at least 34 games each year, the most for the program over a three-year span since 2006-08. The Tigers also won 39 total SEC games in that span, the most successful conference stretch since it joined the SEC prior to the 2013 season. Missouri earned spots in the national top-25 polls every season, reaching as high as No. 18 nationally in 2018.Â
A proven recruiter, Rhodes has earned national recognition for his recruiting classes at Missouri, pulling in top-35 ranked classes in each of his three seasons. His 2019 recruiting class was ranked No. 17 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball.Â
Rhodes has also developed that talent into highly successful players, coaching three OVC Pitchers of the Year, two conference players of the year, 28 MLB draft picks, two Freshman All-Americans and two Academic All-Americans.Â
He has worked with both pitchers and hitters and seen dramatic improvements in both. While Rhodes served as pitching coach at Southeast Missouri, the Redhawks led the OVC in opponent batting average twice (2015, 16), strikeouts (2015), walks allowed (2016), wins (2016), and double plays three times (2013, 14, 15). When Rhodes flipped to working with hitters at Missouri, the Tigers saw dramatic jumps in batting average (by 13 points), home runs (by 21), doubles (by 22), slugging percentage (by 53 points), walks (by 42), on-base percentage (by 15 points), stolen bases (by 12) and fielding percentage.Â
Rhodes played at Saint Louis (2005-06) and Southeast Missouri (2007-08). He earned his bachelor's degree from Southeast Missouri in 2008. He earned a master's degree from Emporia State in 2010.Â
Rhodes and his wife, Brittney, have three sons, Max, Cooper and Hank.
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| Lance Rhodes Year-By-Year Record | ||
| Year | Overall | Conference |
| 2020 | 12-6 | N/A |
| 2021 | 40-20 | 15-13 |
| 2022 | 44-16 | 16-5 (1st) |
| 2023Â Â Â Â | Â Â Â Â 30-27Â Â Â Â Â Â | 15-12 |
| 2024 Â Â | Â 33-27 | Â 12-15 |
| Total: Four Years | 159-96 (.624) | 58-45 (.563) |
