Rich Wallace 2021-22 Baseball Staff

During the 2022 season in Wallace’s third season in South Bend, he oversaw the Irish return to Omaha for the third time in program history and the first time in 20 years. The Irish knocked off No. 1 overall seed Tennessee in the Super Regionals, the second time in program history they defeated the No. 1 overall seed in the Super Regional round. They became the first program in NCAA history to have four wins all-time over the No. 1 overall seed in the Super Regional round. The Irish eclipsed the 40-win plateau for the first time since the 2006 season.

The Irish offense was potent all season long as they set the program record for home runs in a single season with 79. A trio of Irish players hit double-digit home runs behind team-leader Jack Zyska with 13. Jack Brannigan and Brooks Coetzee III both hit 12 and all three players tallied career highs for home runs in a single season. Zyska had a breakout season in his senior campaign as he set career highs in games played, hits, runs, home runs and RBI.

Ryan Cole continued his improvement at the plate in his final season with the Irish as he earned third team All-ACC Honors after finishing fourth in the conference with 22 stolen bases. Catcher David LaManna led the team in batting average with .346 and was named to the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Watch List. As a team the Irish hit .291 on the season, the highest single-season batting average since 2009.

The Irish offense continued to improve in Wallace’s second season with the team in 2021. As a team, the Irish led the ACC in on-base percentage (.379), runs scored per game (7.06) and RBI per game (6.55).

Wallace oversaw career best seasons from Niko Kavadas and Ryan Cole. Kavadas was one of the best power hitters in the country in 2021 and he broke the school record for most home runs in a season as he finished with 22. The 22 home runs ranked second in the ACC and third nationally. Kavadas garnered a lot of national attention as he was a 4x All-American in 2021 and he was the first Irish athlete to be named to a First Team All-American since Steve Stanley in 2002. Kavadas also was named a semifinalist for the the Dick Howser Award and Golden Spikes Award. Kavadas joined John Michael Bertrand as the pair of Irish to earn First Team All-ACC honors. Kavadas finished the season with 46 career home runs which is tied for second all-time in Notre Dame history.

Cole burst onto the scene when he hit his first career home run in the 13th inning to defeat Duke 6-4 in the ACC home opener. The very next day Cole legged out an inside-the-park home run, the first by an Irish player since 2017. The following weekend, Cole hit another walk-off home run in a 5-3 win over Louisville. He finished the season with a team-best .336 batting average that ranks 10th in the ACC. Cole ranked fifth in the ACC with a .455 on-base percentage. He finished second on the team with nine home runs and third on the squad with 34 RBI, both of which were career best marks.

In his first season at Notre Dame, the Irish saw a strong improvement on offense during the shorten season.

Notre Dame ranked fifth in the ACC with a team batting average of .302. The Irish finished in the top-five in a number of offensive categories including on-base percentage (4th – .414), slugging percentage (4th – .485), stolen bases (3rd – 35), hits per game (4th – 10.92), runs scored per game (3rd – 8.92), homers per game (3rd – 1.23), RBI per game (2nd – 7.85) and they led the ACC in stolen bases per game with 2.69. Notre Dame ranked fourth nationally in stolen bases per game and ninth in runs scored per game.

Junior Spencer Myers ended the season ranked No. 1 in the NCAA in stolen bases (15) and steals in a game (6). Myers led the ACC in hits per game (2.08) and finished third in batting average (.431), fifth in hits (25) and seventh in on-base percentage (.492). Wallace guided fellow junior Niko Kavadas to seven home runs in just 13 games, which ranked tied for first in the ACC. Kavadas held the league’s top spot in home runs per game (0.54) and was seventh in slugging percentage with a .673 mark.

University of Notre Dame baseball head coach Link Jarrett announced the hiring of Rich Wallace as an assistant coach in August of 2019.

Wallace brings 16 years of coaching experience to Notre Dame and a strong background in molding players into some of the nation’s best. Prior to his time at Notre Dame, Wallace produced eight All-Americans, 49 All-Conference selections and 49 players have been selected in the MLB Draft.

Wallace joins the Irish after two years as an assistant/associate head coach at Jacksonville working primarily with the hitters, catchers and recruiting. He helped guide the Dolphins to their 15th all-time NCAA Tournament selection in 2018. The Dolphins were the No. 2 seed in the Gainesville Regional, their highest seed in school history. That season, Jacksonville led the Atlantic Sun in batting average, on-base percentage, runs scored and fielding percentage. 

Prior to Jacksonville, Wallace was incredibly successful in his three-year stint as hitting coach and recruiting coordinator at Creighton. In 2017, Creighton won the Big East regular season championship and featured a Freshman All-American (Will Robertson), a Johnny Bench Watch List member (Michael Emodi), and the most home runs hit by a Creighton team since permanently moving to TD Ameritrade. In 2016, the squad was nationally-ranked for six weeks, set a team record with a 3.26 GPA, and had 29 student-athletes received a 3.0 or better. Wallace also earned the accolade of Top Recruiter in the BIG EAST conference by D1 Baseball in 2016.

Before joining the Creighton staff, Wallace served as the recruiting coordinator and hitting coach at High Point University for eight seasons. With the Panthers, he brought in consecutive, nationally-ranked recruiting classes for the first time in school history, and helped lead HPU to its four highest win totals in school history. Wallace mentored four All-Americans, including three freshman All-Americans. 

His coaching career began in the fall of 2003 with his alma mater, the University of Central Florida. Wallace’s primary responsibilities included coaching the catchers and outfielders and coordinating the school’s camps. The 2004 squad won the ASUN Conference regular season championship and appeared in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional as an at-large team.

Wallace played for UCF from 2000-2003, earning a Third Team All-ASUN honor as a freshman and a Freshman All-American award from Collegiate Baseball. The Knights won the ASUN regular season championships from 2000-2002 and the ASUN Tournament in 2001 and 2002. Wallace and his team made the NCAA Tournament from 2000-2002 as well.

A native of Orlando, Fla., Wallace graduated from UCF in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies. He and his wife, Alex, have two girls, Easton and Maxx.