By: Tom Perpetua
UT Permian Basin Baseball Head Coach
Gabe Grinder has finished his coaching staff for the upcoming season, Grinder's first in orange and white. Joining Grinder will be
Josh Larrinaga and Jake Gaul, who both coached under Grinder last season at Ottawa.
Larrinaga previously spent two seasons with the Braves, where they set four individual season records and five team season records. They finished last season 25
th in NAIA in hits and 34
th in runs scored as well as finishing in the top-50 in at bats, home runs per game, hits per game, slugging percentage, and batting average. He also helped Elliot Antonetty be a First Team All-Conference selection at catcher.
No stranger to Division II or the South Central Region, Larrinaga was the head assistant coach at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, serving as the hitting and catching coach as well as recruiting coordinator for three seasons. While he was there they had a .513 winning percentage, was top five in the conference each season, and regionally ranked in 2019. He also coached Zach Hall, who was drafted in the 19
th round of the MLB Draft by the Colorado Rockies. In total he coached two NCAA Division II All-Americans, two Academic All-Americans, and two Freshman of the Year recipients.
Gaul served as pitching coach last season at Ottawa, leading the Braves to a team ERA of 3.67 and struck out 563 batters in 424.2 innings. Opposing hitters hit just .225 against Brave pitching and they had all three of their regular starting pitchers win at least seven games.
Familiar with the Lone Star Conference, Gaul served as an assistant coach at Eastern New Mexico for two seasons. There he organized all developmental aspects for the pitching staff, managed the facilities, assisted with recruitment, and worked with student-athletes to manage their class schedules. Gaul also spent a season at Allen Community College and Sterling College. In just one season at Sterling, Gaul helped the Warriors to a 37-18 record while his pitching staff ranked third in their conference in ERA, produced the conference Freshman Pitcher of the Year, and his closer finished third in the nation in saves.
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