Baseball
Aspegren , Justin
Justin Aspegren
- Title:
- Director of Analytics and Pitching Performance
- Email:
- Baseball@rice.edu
Justin Aspegren is in his second season as an assistant coach with the Owls. He joined the program in the fall of 2023 as a Quality Control Assistant before moving into his current role in January of 2024.
Aspegren will assist Parker Bangs with the Owls’ pitching staff in 2024 while also coaching first base and coordinating defensive positioning.
In his first season on South Main, Aspegren worked with the Owls’ catchers who were second in the AAC with 25 runners thrown out, and coordinated all of Rice’s defense in a season where the Owls led the AAC and ranked second nationally at the end of the regular season with 61 double plays (the most for Rice since 2013).
Aspegren is entering his 18th year of coaching at the collegiate level, including eight at Appalachian State where he served as an assistant coach and pitching coach from 2016-23.
During his time with the Mountaineers, his hurlers posted five of the top 10 season strikeout totals in school history, including a school record 459 last year as App State topped 30 wins for the first time since 2013. After moving to the Sun Belt Conference in the year before his arrival, the Mountaineers reached the SBS Tournament for the first time in 2019 and picked up their first tournament win in 2021.
Four App State players were drafted from 2017-2023: Matt Brill (12th, 2017), Colin Schmid (13th, 2018), Jack Hartman (4th, 2020), and Xander Hamilton (14th, 2023), as was catcher Chandler Seagle (30th, 2017) who made his MLB debut with San Diego in 2023. A fifth hurler, Kaleb Bowman, was signed by the Brewers as a free agent after the 2022 season.
Aspegren began his coaching career at Santa Barbara College where he was the associate head coach and pitching coach from 2008-2015. The Vaqueros won three Western State Conference titles (2011, 2012, 2015), reaching the Southern California Regionals in 2008, and from 2011- 2015. They advanced to the Super Regional in 2011, 2014, and 2015 and to the Sectionals in 2014, and 2015.
Two of his pitchers were named Pacific Association Division All-American (Chris Joyce in 2011 and Kit Larson in 2014), with Joyce also being named the Southern California Pitcher of the Year. Four others were named to the Southern California All-State team (Zak Edgington in 2010, D.J. Gunderson in 2011, Tyler Gilbert in 2013, and Sean Barry in 2015.
A total of 16 former players were selected in the MLB draft and five others signed affiliate free-agent contracts. Gilbert made his MLB debut as a reliever in 2021 and, later that season became the second player in major league history to throw a no-hitter in his first career start (August 14, 2021, for Arizona vs. San Diego).
Aspegren also coached for six years in the collegiate summer leagues and coached 31 players who reached the majors including former Owls Jon Duplantier and Glen Otto. He led the Santa Barbara Foresters, featuring Duplantier and former Rice teammates Ford Stainback and John Williamson, to the NBC national championship in 2014.
He is a 2007 graduate of UC Santa Barbara, where he was a pitcher for two seasons after beginning his career at SBCC, where he was a two-time., all-conference selection as a utility player who both pitched and played first base. He earned his Master of Science, in Exercise Science with a concentration in Sport Psychology from California University of Pennsylvania in 2013.
Aspegren will assist Parker Bangs with the Owls’ pitching staff in 2024 while also coaching first base and coordinating defensive positioning.
In his first season on South Main, Aspegren worked with the Owls’ catchers who were second in the AAC with 25 runners thrown out, and coordinated all of Rice’s defense in a season where the Owls led the AAC and ranked second nationally at the end of the regular season with 61 double plays (the most for Rice since 2013).
Aspegren is entering his 18th year of coaching at the collegiate level, including eight at Appalachian State where he served as an assistant coach and pitching coach from 2016-23.
During his time with the Mountaineers, his hurlers posted five of the top 10 season strikeout totals in school history, including a school record 459 last year as App State topped 30 wins for the first time since 2013. After moving to the Sun Belt Conference in the year before his arrival, the Mountaineers reached the SBS Tournament for the first time in 2019 and picked up their first tournament win in 2021.
Four App State players were drafted from 2017-2023: Matt Brill (12th, 2017), Colin Schmid (13th, 2018), Jack Hartman (4th, 2020), and Xander Hamilton (14th, 2023), as was catcher Chandler Seagle (30th, 2017) who made his MLB debut with San Diego in 2023. A fifth hurler, Kaleb Bowman, was signed by the Brewers as a free agent after the 2022 season.
Aspegren began his coaching career at Santa Barbara College where he was the associate head coach and pitching coach from 2008-2015. The Vaqueros won three Western State Conference titles (2011, 2012, 2015), reaching the Southern California Regionals in 2008, and from 2011- 2015. They advanced to the Super Regional in 2011, 2014, and 2015 and to the Sectionals in 2014, and 2015.
Two of his pitchers were named Pacific Association Division All-American (Chris Joyce in 2011 and Kit Larson in 2014), with Joyce also being named the Southern California Pitcher of the Year. Four others were named to the Southern California All-State team (Zak Edgington in 2010, D.J. Gunderson in 2011, Tyler Gilbert in 2013, and Sean Barry in 2015.
A total of 16 former players were selected in the MLB draft and five others signed affiliate free-agent contracts. Gilbert made his MLB debut as a reliever in 2021 and, later that season became the second player in major league history to throw a no-hitter in his first career start (August 14, 2021, for Arizona vs. San Diego).
Aspegren also coached for six years in the collegiate summer leagues and coached 31 players who reached the majors including former Owls Jon Duplantier and Glen Otto. He led the Santa Barbara Foresters, featuring Duplantier and former Rice teammates Ford Stainback and John Williamson, to the NBC national championship in 2014.
He is a 2007 graduate of UC Santa Barbara, where he was a pitcher for two seasons after beginning his career at SBCC, where he was a two-time., all-conference selection as a utility player who both pitched and played first base. He earned his Master of Science, in Exercise Science with a concentration in Sport Psychology from California University of Pennsylvania in 2013.
DAVID PIERCE INTRODUCTORY PRESS CONFERENCE
Wednesday, March 19
KHOU Ben Dukes
Saturday, May 04
2024 Night of the Owl End of Year Recap
Thursday, April 25
Louisiana game one recap
Friday, March 01
