David Pierce - Baseball Coach - Rice University Athletics

David Pierce

Title:
Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach
Email:
Baseball@rice.edu

David Pierce was named the new Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach at Rice on March 17, 2025, returning to South Main where he served as an assistant under Wayne Graham from 2003-11.
Pierce’s nine seasons at Rice saw the Owls win a conference title and qualify for the NCAA tournament each year, earn five national seeds, and advance to five Super Regionals and four College World Series, winning the title in 2003. As a head coach since 2012, he took Sam Houston, Tulane, and Texas to 11 Regionals, four Super Regionals, and three College World Series while compiling a .646 winning percentage (494-271) in 13 seasons as a head coach.

His 494 wins since 2012 rank third among active coaches in Texas heading into the 2025 season (Jim Schlossnagle, 521 combined at TCU and Texas A&M, and Dan Heefner, 507 at Dallas Baptist). He was Baseball America’s Coach of the Year in 2018 while at Texas and is a four-time conference coach of year winner and a two-time ABCA Central Region Coach of the Year.
Most recently, Pierce was 297-162 in eight seasons coaching at Texas from 2017-24, leading the Longhorns to six NCAA berths, four Super Regionals, and three trips to the College World Series. He also led Texas to its first Big XII Conference title since 2011 in 2018 and added a second in 2021.

The 2024 Longhorns made their fourth-consecutive NCAA Regional appearance, and the team hit the second-most home runs in program history with 112. Outfielder Max Belyeu had a breakout sophomore season and was named the Big 12 Player of the Year.

The 2023 team returned only two everyday starters in the lineup and just 23 home runs from the previous season and still came just one game short of advancing to a third-straight College World Series. Despite featuring an almost entirely new lineup, the Longhorns batted .293 as a team and averaged just over seven runs per game. On the pitching side, the Longhorns finished the season ranked 10th nationally with a 4.18 ERA and second in the Big 12 with a .245 opponents’ batting average. Lucas Gordon was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and earned first-team All-American honors. At the same time, Lebarron Johnson Jr. was recognized on the All-Big 12 First Team and received second-team All-America recognition.

In 2022, the Longhorns returned to the College World Series for the second-consecutive season and third time in the last four completed seasons with a 47-22 overall. Texas smashed the program record with 128 home runs, surpassing the 2010 squad that hit 81. The best power-hitting team in program history slugged .550 to smash the previous program record of .508 set in 1974. Leading the way offensively, Ivan Melendez became the first Texas player to win the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award and swept the national player of the year awards.

Melendez hit a Longhorns record 32 home runs, surpassing Kyle Russell’s Texas record 28 homers in 2007 and Kris Bryant’s BBCOR era record of 31 homers in 2013. Pete Hansen led the pitching staff and landed second-team All-America honors with a 3.76 ERA, an 11-3 record, and 120 strikeouts in 107.2 innings pitched. The Longhorns also produced the best defensive season in program history, fielding .985 for the first time ever and finishing with a program-low 37 errors.

The 2021 season saw Texas return to the College World Series and come just one game shy of the CWS Finals. Pierce guided the Longhorns to the Big 12 Championship and their first 50-win season since 2010, while being named the Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year for the second time. He was also recognized as the ABCA Central Regional Coach of the Year, a distinction he had not received since the 2012 season. The Longhorns had 13 total players recognized on the All-Big 12 teams, including the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Ty Madden. Madden was also named a First Team All-American and became the highest drafted Texas player since Taylor Jungmann in 2011. The 2021 Longhorns led the nation with a 2.93 ERA, the best mark for the program since 2014. The pitching staff also totaled 556 strikeouts, the most for a Longhorn pitching staff since 2011. Offensively the Longhorns blasted 68 home runs, the most since a program record 81 in 2010. The team not only hit for power, finishing with more stolen bases (92) than any Texas team in over 15 years.

In just his second season at the helm in 2018, Pierce was named Baseball America's National Coach of the Year after guiding the Longhorns to a 42-23 record and back to the College World Series for the first time since 2014. With a 17-7 mark in league play, Pierce, who was named the Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year, led his team to the Big 12 Conference title—the first conference title for Texas since 2011—and hosted both an NCAA Regional and an NCAA Super Regional. In the Austin Regional, the Longhorns went 3-0 with wins over Texas Southern, Texas A&M, and Indiana. In the Super Regional, Texas dropped game one to Tennessee Tech before taking games two and three to send Pierce to Omaha for the first time as head coach.

Under Pierce and his staff’s tutelage, second baseman Kody Clemens completed one of the best offensive seasons in Texas history. A third-round draft pick by the Detroit Tigers, Clemens was named a unanimous first-team All-American at second base, becoming the first to earn that honor under Pierce. Clemens, the ABCA National Player of the Year and a finalist for both the Dick Howser Trophy and the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award, blasted 24 home runs on the year, good for second in the country and second-most in a single season in Texas Baseball history. Clemens also ranked nationally in total bases (second, 180), slugging percentage (fifth, .726), and RBI (12th, 72).

In his first season leading the Longhorns, Pierce led Texas to a 39-24 record, a 14-win improvement from the 2016 campaign. Texas came within one win of taking the Big 12 Conference tournament title before earning a No. 2 seed in the Long Beach Regional. Texas won its first two games of the regional before its season came to a close at the hands of LBSU.

Pierce came to Texas from Tulane, where he spent two seasons as head coach following a three-year stint at Sam Houston State in the same role.

Joining the Green Wave in 2015, the Houston native guided the school into its first season in the American Athletic Conference. His team posted a school-record nine shutouts, which ranked fourth in the nation, en route to a 35-25 record and the program’s first regional appearance since 2008.

Pierce’s second season at Tulane brought even more success as he led the 2016 Green Wave to a 41-21 record, a regular season AAC championship and a second-consecutive regional appearance. The 41 wins were the most for the program since 2006. The team led the nation with 13 shutouts and ranked in the top 25 in both ERA (23rd/3.24) and WHIP (25th/1.24), while belting out 66 home runs, which was tied for 13th nationally.

In three seasons as head coach at Sam Houston State, Pierce compiled a record of 121-63 (.658). During his tenure, the Bearkats made three straight NCAA Regional appearances for just the second time in program history. Sam Houston State was crowned Southland Conference champions in each of his three seasons (the program’s only previous league title came in 1989), and Pierce was named the conference coach of the year in both 2012 and 2013. The recognition in back-to-back years made him the first Southland Conference coach to earn consecutive honors since UTSA's Sherman Corbett (2007-08).

In his first season as head coach in 2012, the Bearkats were ranked in each of the major Division I polls for the first time in program history. That season, he was honored as an American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Regional Coach of the Year. In 2014, his final season in Huntsville, Pierce guided SHSU to a 43-19 record, the second-highest single-season win total for the Bearkats since they joined Division I in 1987. The team ranked in the top 25 in the nation and second in the conference in both ERA (17th/2.73) and hits (25th/610). It also led the conference in scoring (5.7 rpg), home runs (31) and slugging percentage (.390).

Pierce first coached at Rice as an assistant under David Hall in 1991, the year before Wayne Graham was named head coach and then returned to South Main to coach under Graham in 2003. He served as hitting coach from 2003-05 before taking over as pitching coach from 2006-11. Under his tutelage, the 2003 Owls hit .313 with 51 homers and 449 RBI en route to the school’s first-ever national title. In six seasons as the Owls’ pitching coach, Pierce helped produce five staffs whose ERAs ranked in the NCAA top 30, peaking with the fourth-best mark in the nation in 2007. On that 2007 squad, two Pierce-coached pitchers received major Conference USA awards as Ryne Tacker was named C-USA Pitcher of the Year and Ryan Berry earned Freshman of the Year honors. Berry also earned Collegiate Baseball Freshman of the Year honors. In that year alone, eight Owl pitchers were selected in the MLB Draft, including the 19th overall pick, Joe Savery.

From 2006-11 under Pierce, 27 Owls pitchers were chosen in the MLB Draft, eight of which were selected in the first 10 rounds. In that span, Pierce tutored six NCAA All-America selections, two freshman All-America selections and a pair of CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in Eddie Degerman (2006) and Tacker (2007).

Prior to his second stretch at Rice, Pierce spent two seasons as hitting coach at the University of Houston, helping UH to a pair of postseason appearances, including an NCAA Super Regional showing in 2002. The Cougars hit .310 that season, the fifth-best single-season performance in team history.

Pierce's jump-started his head coaching career at Dobie High School in Pasadena, Texas, where he ran the program from 1996-2001. There, Pierce led the Longhorns to three District 23-5A titles and three Region III semifinal berths. While at Dobie, he was named district coach of the year three times and was also named a coach for the United States Junior Olympic trials.
During his tenure in Pasadena, Pierce produced three all-state players, 36 all-district stars and 10 players who went on to perform at the college level, including former college All-American Shane Nance, who went on to pitch for the Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Before Dobie, Pierce was an assistant coach at Episcopal High School from 1992-95 and head coach at St. Pius X High School – where he also played – from 1989-90.
Following his high school playing career, Pierce continued as a student-athlete at Wharton County Junior College (1982-83) before playing two seasons at Houston (1984-85). As a senior in 1985, Pierce helped pace the Cougars to an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. He completed his degree at Houston in 1988.

A native Houstonian, Pierce was born on October 13, 1962. He and his wife, Susan, have two children and two grandchildren. Pierce's daughter, Chelsea, graduated from The University of Texas in 2012 and is married to her husband, Bryan Caffey and the couple have two daughters, Beckett and Lochlan. David and Susan's son, Shea, played for his father at both Sam Houston (2012-15) and Tulane (2016) and is married to the former Madison Olivarez, who is a 2018 graduate of The University of Texas.