Nate Yeskie Position: Assistant Coach

Nate Yeskie returns for his second season as Oregon State's pitching coach and is just a year removed from making a big impact on the team's staff.

In 2009, the Beavers' staff played a big part in the team advancing to the Fort Worth Regional. The club sported an ERA of 3.93, good for eighth in the nation while the team was sixth in hits per nine innings.

A number of individual pitchers had fine seasons, including Sam Gaviglio, who set a team freshman record with 10 victories. He teamed with fellow newcomer Tyler Waldron, lefties Tanner Robles and Josh Osich, and righty Jorge Reyes to form an impressive starting staff that has designs on improving even more in 2010 under Yeskie's tutelage.
Yeskie does so by bringing an organized and professional approach to the staff, utilizing tools and techniques from stops in Minor League baseball and the collegiate game.

Yeskie last served as the pitching coach at his alma mater, UNLV, from 2005 to 2007. During his tenure with the Runnin' Rebels, Yeskie mentored eight players who earned either an All-Conference or All-Tournament Team selection.

In 2005, Yeskie's staff helped enable UNLV to win the Mountain West Conference regular season, the MWC Tournament and earn a berth to the Tempe Regional.

Seven UNLV pitchers who were tutored by Yeskie in his three seasons have been selected by Major League Baseball clubs, while another signed as an undrafted free agent.

Prior to returning to UNLV as a coach, Yeskie spent five seasons in the Minnesota Twins Minor League system, reaching as high as Double-A New Britain. He finished with a 27-24 record and 4.91 earned run average over the five seasons. Yeskie went 11-7 with Fort Wayne of the Midwest League in 1997, recording 111 strikeouts in 165 1/3 innings of work.

In 2000, his last season, the La Crosse, Wis., native went 4-1 in 21 appearances.

In the 1999 offseason, Yeskie played for the Grand Canyon Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, a league often reserved for the top professional prospects.

During his time in professional baseball, Yeskie worked with current Detroit Tigers pitching coach Rick Knapp as well as MLB veterans Bert Blyleven, Mel Stottlemyre, Jr., the current Arizona Diamondbacks pitching coach, and former pitching coach Billy Connors, who once held the position of Director of Player Personnel with the New York Yankees.

Yeskie came to the Twins organization after being drafted in the ninth round of the 1996 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Minnesota selected the right-hander after he finished his UNLV career with a 22-12 mark, including 16 complete games.

In 1994, 1995 and 1996, Yeskie made five Team USA Olympic Trial appearances. He was also rated as the sixth-best MLB Draft prospect entering his junior year at UNLV.

A three-year letterwinner, his 147 strikeouts in 1995 still stand as UNLV's single-season record. The mark was also fifth-best nationally that season, and coupled with his nine complete games - which led the Big West Conference - earned him First-Team All-Big West and First-Team All-Region honors.

Yeskie was drafted in the sixth round of the 1993 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers after a stellar high school career at Carson High, one that saw him set a number of school records. En route to earning first-team All-America honors in 1993, he finished with a 12-0 record and a school record for strikeouts in a season (158) and strikeouts in a game (20).

In 1993, as a senior, he was named a Baseball America First-Team All-American. That same year he was the Nevada Player of the Year and a First-Team All-State pitcher, a distinction he was also given as a junior in 1992. Yeskie also got his first taste of Team USA Baseball in high school. In 1992, he played for Team USA at the Area Code Games in San Jose, Calif., and at the Goodwill Series in Seoul, Korea.

Prior to his tenure at UNLV, Yeskie served as the Director of Field Operations for the Las Vegas Bowl, coordinating pre-game and halftime shows for the postseason game from 2001-04. From 2001-05, he was the President/Head Coach of the Nevada Bulldogs Baseball Organization. Four players who played for the Bulldogs were later drafted by Major League Baseball clubs, while five players made their way to NCAA Division I clubs.

Yeskie earned his bachelor of arts in communications from UNLV in 2003, earning Dean's List honors.