Michael Harold Batesole (born March 28, 1964) is an American former

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach. He previously served as coach of the

Cal State Northridge Matadors The Cal State Northridge Matadors (branded as the CSUN Matadors) are the athletic teams that represent California State University, Northridge in Northridge, Los Angeles, California. The Matadors field 17 teams in nineteen sports. The Matadors c ...

(1996–2002) and the

Fresno State Bulldogs The Fresno State Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent California State University, Fresno (commonly referred to as Fresno State). The university is a member of NCAA Division I's Mountain West Conference (MW). It was a ...

(2003–2022).

Early life, playing career, and education

Born in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

, Batesole graduated from

Garden Grove High School Garden Grove High School is a public high school located in Garden Grove, California. It is a member of the Garden Grove Unified School District and serves the northeast portion of the city and a small portion of southern Anaheim. History The G ...

in 1982 and began his college baseball career at

Oral Roberts University Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a private evangelical university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Founded in 1963, the university is named after its founder, evangelist Oral Roberts. Sitting on a campus, ORU offers over 70 undergraduate degree programs ...

. At Oral Roberts, Batesole started at

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

from 1983 to 1985 and finished with a .285 batting average, 31 home runs, and 148 runs batted in. From 1985 to 1988, Batesole played minor league baseball in the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

organization. In 1990, Batesole completed his bachelor's degree in kinesiology at

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

. He later completed a master's degree in biomechanics from the same university. During his graduate studies, Batesole was an instructor in the Health and Physical Education Department.

Coaching career

Assistant coach (1986–1995)

From 1986 to 1987 and again in 1991, Batesole was an assistant coach at

Orange Coast College Orange Coast College (OCC) is a public community college in Costa Mesa in Orange County, California. It was founded in 1947, with its first classes opening in the fall of 1948. It provides Associate of Art and Associate of Science degrees, cert ...

, a junior college in

Costa Mesa, California Costa Mesa (; Spanish for "Table Coast") is a city in Orange County, California. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to an urban area including part of the South Coast Plaza–John Wa ...

. After completing his master's degree, Batesole was an assistant coach at another Southern California junior college in the 1993 season,

Cypress College Cypress College is a public community college in Cypress, California. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and belongs to the North Orange County Community College District. It offers a variety of general education (55 associat ...

. Batesole joined the coaching staff of

Bill Kernen William Craig Kernen (born August 1, 1948) is an American baseball coach and playwright. He was the head coach at Cal State Northridge from 1989 to 1995 and at Cal State Bakersfield from 2009 to 2015. Other coaching positions as an assistant inc ...

Cal State Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

in July 1993. As an assistant, Batesole specialized in coaching infielders and calling the offense.

Cal State Northridge (1996–2002)

Following the resignation of Kernen in August 1995, Cal State Northridge promoted Batesole to interim head coach. Batesole led Cal State Northridge to a 52–18 record, NCAA Regionals runner-up appearance, and first

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

(WAC) title in school history in his debut season of 1996. Cal State Northridge promoted Batesole long-term as head coach in July 1996. Batesole led Cal State Northridge through its transition out of the WAC to

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

(1997 to 2000) to the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

in 2001. In its first year of independence in 1997, Cal State Northridge went 42–20–1. After leading a team largely consisting of freshmen and junior college transfers to a 37–19 record in 1998, Batesole earned National Coach of the Year honors from ''

Collegiate Baseball ''Collegiate Baseball Newspaper'' (also known as ''Collegiate Baseball Magazine'' and ''Collegiate Baseball'') is an American publication based in Arizona that considers itself the "voice of amateur baseball" which has been published for over 40 ...

''. The Big West Coach of the Year in 2002, Batesole reached his 250th career win that season and led Cal State Northridge to a 41–17 season, its first Big West title, as well as an NCAA Regionals appearance. In seven seasons from 1996 to 2002, Batesole led Cal State Northridge to a cumulative 256–158–1 record, the second most wins for a head coach in program history.

Fresno State (2003–2022)

On May 28, 2002,

California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

hired Batesole to be head coach of the

Fresno State Bulldogs baseball The Fresno State Bulldogs baseball team represents Fresno State in NCAA Division I college baseball. Along with most other Fresno State athletic teams, the baseball team participates in the Mountain West Conference. The Bulldogs play their home g ...

team following the retirement of 34-year head coach Bob Bennett. Batesole led Fresno State to six WAC Tournament titles: four straight from 2006 to 2009 and two more in 2011 and 2012, in addition to five WAC regular season titles: three straight from 2006 to 2008 and two more from 2010 to 2011. Fresno State moved from the WAC to

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

(MW) beginning in the 2013 season. In 2016, Fresno State won the MW regular season title for its first championship in that conference, for which Batesole won MW Coach of the Year honors. On December 8, 2022, Batesole retired from coaching.

2008 national championship

In 2008, he coached Fresno State to their first College World Series appearance in seventeen years by defeating #3 Arizona State, and then defeating #6 Rice University, #2 University of North Carolina to advance to the championship, and then defeating #8 University of Georgia in the final two games in a best two-out-of-three championship series winning 19–10 in the second game, and 6–1 in the third game to win Fresno State their first NCAA Men's Championship.

Head coaching records

The following is a list of Batesole's yearly records as an NCAA head baseball coach.

References

External links

Official bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batesole, Mike 1964 births Living people Bakersfield Dodgers players Baseball first basemen Baseball third basemen Cal State Northridge Matadors baseball coaches California State University, Fullerton alumni California State University, Fullerton faculty Fresno State Bulldogs baseball coaches Great Falls Dodgers players Oral Roberts Golden Eagles baseball players San Antonio Missions players Vero Beach Dodgers players Orange Coast Pirates baseball coaches People from Garden Grove, California Baseball players from Anaheim, California Baseball coaches from California