Southern baseball coach Chris Crenshaw recently finished his fourth season as the Jaguars coach but will be making his first foray into the national coaching circuit during the next two weeks.
Crenshaw was selected to serve on the Collegiate National Team, which begins its training camp Tuesday in Cary, North Carolina, and will compete in the 21st USA vs. Chinese Taipei International Friendship Series.
The 55-player roster will be divided into two teams, the other competing in a four-game summer league tour series against the Appalachian and Coastal Plain leagues.
“It’s exciting; the hard work I put in got recognized,” said Crenshaw, who has compiled a 102-118 record at Southern. “We’ll spend time getting to know each other over the next three or four days and will scrimmage each other in the first couple of days before facing outside competition."
Alabama State coach Jose Vazquez will coach the international team, and former Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore will coach the summer tour team. Crenshaw has been assigned as first base coach on Gilmore’s staff.
“I’ll be involved in a little bit of everything, working with hitters and pitchers," Crenshaw said. "Coaching first base will be new; I’ve only coached third. There will be something to learn. I’ll be surrounded by some other head coaches. I’ll get to pick their brains and learn."
Crenshaw benefitted from contact with the team when Jaguars pitcher Nick Wilson was selected to the team. There are no Southern players on the squad but LSU freshman infielder Steven Milam was one of the players picked.
“We are excited about the nine coaches we have added to our 2024 coaching staff,” said Eric Campbell, USA Baseball’s general manager of collegiate and professional national teams. “This is a strong collection of coaches who offer a wide range of knowledge from years of experience in college baseball. We look forward to providing our players with a world-class experience this summer as they will learn from an excellent collection of coaches.”
The teams will play intrasquad games for two days before they are split into two rosters. One will compete against the Chinese Taipei team and the other will play in the summer league tour against select teams from the Appalachian League and Coastal Plain League.
“The talent across college baseball this year has been nothing short of fantastic,” Campbell said. “We had an incredibly deep pool of players to select from for this year’s Collegiate national team training camp, and we are confident in the 55 players who will be arriving to Cary. We are excited to get our Stars versus Stripes series underway.”