A brand new era of Washington Huskies baseball is upon us and it’s new in quite a few different ways. First, there’s the move from the Pac-12 into the Big Ten, which is going to take some getting used to, to be honest. Then there’s the way that UW will be competing under Eddie Smith this season. Smith has deep roots and plenty of connections to the Pacific Northwest, but he’s a new face on Montlake.
With Jason Kelly departing Seattle and leaving the Huskies after going a dismal 19-31-1 in 2024 (including a frustrating eight-game losing streak to end the season) in favor of being a pitching coach once again (he went to the Lone Star State to join the Texas A&M Aggies in the SEC), Smith now has a chance to build this program in the way that he wants.
And it’s worth pointing out that Smith had a pretty quick turnaround in his previous program. While with the Utah Valley Wolverines, Smith inherited a team that went 10-47 in 2021 and, within two seasons, took UVU to a 34-24 record. Smith wasn’t with Utah Valley for very long, but he’s shown (at prominent programs like LSU, Virginia, and Notre Dame) to have some solid offensive expertise.
It also looks like he’s focusing on building a coaching staff (and program) that is centered around cultivating talent from the Pacific Northwest and developing it to thrive.
Washington Huskies baseball coaching staff: Who will lead the UW baseball team in 2025?
To help build the Huskies moving forward, Smith picked up Connor Lambert out of Portland to be the pitching coach for UW. Lambert’s pitching staffs at Portland were routinely successful and in 2024, Portland had the No. 2 ERA in the West Coast Conference as well as the No. 19 ERA in the NCAA.
Anthony Gilich will be serving as Washington’s “defensive coordinator,” which is a fun title to bring to a baseball program. Most recently a part of the Arizona State Sun Devils, Gilich has a ton of coaching experience at a variety of levels, including the junior college level as well as the University of Puget Sound.
Mike Gange is going to be a pretty familiar face for Washington Husky fans as he is going to be around in Seattle to be the recruiting coordinator for the UW baseball team. He’s going into his third season on Montlake and has shown that he can assist in a few different ways, from scouting for talent to helping the Huskies improve at the plate.
Off the field, Washington was able to get former Ohio State director of operations Damon Lessler to join the Huskies as the director of player development and longtime UW Husky Jacob Hatloe to show up as Washington’s director of operations.
The Huskies have a pretty intriguing batch of coaches assembled here. And it really feels like Smith is going all in on developing this program through the talent in the Pacific Northwest. It’ll be fascinating to see how things play out for this group.