New NSU Baseball Coach To Be Introduced Monday

(Following Story Provided by Northwestern State University Sports Information Department)

NATCHITOCHES – New Northwestern State baseball coach Lane Burroughs will be introduced Monday afternoon at 2 during a press conference in the Stroud Room of the NSU Athletic Fieldhouse, with the public welcome to attend.

Burroughs, a Mississippi State assistant coach since 2009, was hired Wednesday by NSU director of athletics Greg Burke.

Burroughs, 39,  has been part of eight NCAA Regional tournament teams and helped guide Northwestern State to the 1998 Southland Conference championship. He takes over a program which is the winningest in the Southland Conference since 1990 with an average of nearly 36 victories per season, while the Demons captured nine Southland championships in a 14-year span (1991-2005).

Burroughs has been a key factor in the Bulldogs’ recruiting efforts which have garnered top 25 national ranking in each of his first three years, with the 2012 rankings to come later this summer. Mississippi State won the 2012 Southeastern Conference Tournament championship and made a second straight NCAA Regional appearance a year after nearly making the College World Series field, falling in a nailbiting NCAA Super Regional loss at Florida.

Burroughs helped Kansas State emerge as a Big 12 Conference contender, coaching under Brad Hill as the Wildcats reached the Big 12 Conference Tournament champion game in 2008. Burroughs spent nine years on Corky Palmer’s staff at Southern Mississippi from 1999-2007, serving as recruiting coordinator, hitting coach, infield coach and third base coach as the Golden Eagles made their first six NCAA Regional appearances.

Burroughs and his wife Susan have three children, Parker Grace (10), Camryn Laine (8) and Thomas Jackson (4).

He was a catcher and outfielder and a pre-law major at Mississippi College, where he earned an undergraduate degree in 1995. A year later, he received his master’s in social sciences as a graduate assistant coach and he moved to East Mississippi Community College as an assistant coach in 1997 before getting hired at NSU by Van Horn that summer.

Burroughs coached 12 Mississippi State players chosen in the Major League Baseball Draft, including three top 10-round picks and 2012 first-rounder Chris Stratton. The Bulldogs have had 47 All-SEC Academic Honor Roll selections in his first three seasons.

In a year at Kansas State, he coached hitters, outfielders and was in charge of recruiting with 14 players drafted and seven top 10 round selections.

During his seven years at USM, the Golden Eagles had five top 10-round draft picks and produced four major league players while winning their first Conference USA title in 2003 and winning 47 games a year later while setting school records for hits, runs and RBI.