On Tuesday, Rutgers baseball head coach Steve Owens earned his 1,000th career win as the Scarlet Knights defeated Hofstra 5-0. Owens is now the ninth active Division I coach to reach 1,000 career wins, making history in front of his home crowd at Bainton Field.
Owens started his NCAA coaching career in 1992 at Cortland State, coaching the Red Dragons for eight seasons. Owens led the Red Dragons to 245 wins and seven straight NCAA Regionals. He took Cortland State to four NCAA Division III World Series, including three consecutive trips from 1997 to 1999.
After the 1999 season, Owens took his first Division I head coaching job at Le Moyne. Starting in 2000, Owens coached the Dolphins for 11 straight winning seasons. He recorded 342 wins while coaching at Le Moyne and had three NCAA tournament berths. During his tenure with the Dolphins, Owens was named the MAAC Coach of the Year twice (2004, 2006). Owens reached his first coaching milestone in 2007, becoming the youngest coach in the country to record 500 career wins.
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1,000 wins calls for a special postgame shower for Coach Owens!#TCD pic.twitter.com/QakvtZA5gg
— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) April 4, 2023
After 11 years at Le Moyne, Ownes accepted the head coaching position at Bryant. Owens coached the Bulldogs for nine seasons, totaling 327 wins. In his first four years at Byrant, Owens led the Bulldogs to four consecutive 30-win seasons. Bryant transitioned to Division I in 2011, making the NCAA postseason in 2013. Owens led the Bulldogs to a 45-18-1 record in 2013, upsetting Arkansas in the postseason (regional). In 2016, Owens led Bryant to a school-record 47 games and a national ranking as high as No. 15.
In his 32 seasons of coaching, Owens has coached 55 professional players and 25 NCAA All-Americans. Out of 32 seasons, Owens has 29 winning seasons to go along with a 74-49 postseason record.
Owens’s coaching resume consists of 21 30-win seasons, six 40-win seasons, 20 regular season titles, 13 NCAA tournaments, seven American Baseball Coaches Association NCAA Regional Coaches of the Year honors, and 11 conference Coach of the Year honors.
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