Quote:That changed in short order. Pierce joined the Owls for the 2003 season, and they promptly captured the school’s only national title, beating Stanford in the CWS Finals. Pierce had a fruitful career with the Owls. And while he originally was hired as Graham’s hitting coach, his career took an interesting turn in 2005 when he was moved to the pitching coach role after Zane Curry left Rice. Pierce excelled at that role, too., establishing himself as one of the bright pitching minds in college baseball.

“I actually got the job at Rice because I was lefthanded and they needed someone to throw the team batting practice from the left side,” Pierce jokingly said. “I was fortunate enough to do a few things right, and I gained a lot of trust from Coach [Graham]. And the best thing to happen to me there is that we won the national title in my first year, so it really set us up with a nice five-year cushion.”

“After 2005, we lost our pitching coach and he moved me to that role and said we’d do that job together. Honestly, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” he continued. “It was great to do the actual work of setting up the pitching programs, sequencing the bullpens, putting together how much guys could throw on which days and making sure we made a conscious effort to build the bullpen.”