Jake Gautreau - Baseball Coach

Jake Gautreau

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
jgautreau@athletics.msstate.edu
Phone:
662-325-3597

2019 D1BASEBALL NATIONAL ASSISTANT COACH OF THE YEAR

Jake Gautreau enters his eighth season on the Mississippi State baseball coaching staff, serving as the recruiting coordinator, hitting, and infield coach.

Gautreau's passion for the game has enabled him to succeed at every level: high school, college, professional, and coaching. The 2019 National Assistant Coach of the Year has an unmatched passion for teaching the game and building relationships that reach far beyond the locker room.

On top of his National Assistant Coach of the Year honor from D1Baseball in 2019, the McAllen, Texas, native led all Texas high schoolers in home runs as a prep junior, earned All-America honors each of his three seasons at Tulane before the San Diego Padres took him with the 14th overall pick in the first round of the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft. As a professional, he rated as a top-10 prospect in the San Diego Padre's organization before transitioning into coaching in 2009 and earning Perfect Game's 'Assistant Ready to Lead' distinction in 2013.

The Conference USA Hall of Famer began his coaching career at his alma mater, Tulane, and he spent five years as an assistant coach before serving as interim head coach during the second half of the 2014 season – his final year at Tulane. Following his stint with the Green Wave, Gautreau spent three years as Certified Player Agent for the Boras Corporation. During his time with the Boras Corporation, he identified and evaluated talent and recruited premier amateur baseball players from across the country, along with helping them prepare for the MLB Draft.

Recruiting and Development

Gautreau has left his mark on both the recruiting and coaching side of the program as he has signed eight straight nationally ranked classes, advanced to the College World Series in 2018 and 2019, including leading State to the 2021 National Championship, and helped the Bulldog offense rank among the national leaders annually.

Gautreau's impact was immediately felt in Starkville, as the Bulldogs landed a top-5 class for the 2018 recruiting cycle and owned a top-10 class in 2019-20. He helped secure a top-25 class according to each of the four major recruiting services for the 2018 cycle, while his 2019 recruiting class was ranked as high as No. 5 by D1Baseball and was a consensus top-15 class. The 2025 signing class was ranked as high as No. 5 by Perfect game and ranked No. 6 by Baseball America. The only staff member retained by head coach Chris Lemonis upon his arrival in Starkville in 2018, Gautreau helped the Bulldogs keep first-round draft pick JT Ginn away from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He has recruited or tutored seven All-Americans and ten Freshman All-Americans. In his eight seasons at State, Gautreau has seen Tanner Allen, Justin Foscue, Jake Mangum, RJ Yeager, Hunter Hines and Dakota Jordan all earn All-America honors, while Allen, Hines, Jordan and Rowdey Jordan have touted Freshman All-America honors. He also recruited a trio of Freshman All-American pitchers, including back-to-back National Freshman of the Year winners JT Ginn (2019) and Christian MacLeod (2020).

Gautreau has also seen eight of his pupils earn first-team All-Southeastern Conference, including Mangum, during each of his eight seasons on campus. David Mershon earned SEC First Team honors in 2024 at shortstop, Hines in 2023 and Yeager earned all-conference honors in 2022, while Allen, Foscue, and Mangum all grabbed top all-conference honors in 2019, with Mangum leading the SEC and the NCAA in hits (108). Allen (7) and Foscue (14) each elevated their homerun totals, posted 90-plus hits, and drove in 60-plus runs each during their sophomore seasons.

After seeing seven Bulldogs drafted in his first year on staff, a school-record-tying 11 Mississippi State student-athletes heard their names called in the MLB Draft, a total that ranked No. 3 nationally. The 2020 MLB Draft saw two of Gautreau's understudies selected in the first round. The duo of Justin Foscue and Jordan Westburg – both undrafted out of high school – were taken with the No. 14 (Texas) and No. 30 (Baltimore) overall picks to mark the second time in program history MSU had two student-athletes drafted in the first round (1985; Clark & Palmeiro). During his seventh season on staff, the Diamond Dawgs tied the school record with11 players drafted in the 2024 MLB Draft, the most by any school in the draft.

His final recruiting class at Tulane was tabbed the No. 4 class in the country by Perfect Game for the 2013 cycle, while he has garnered five top-25 classes in his time at State.

In 14 years as a collegiate coach, Gautreau has seen 40 of his pupils taken in the Major League Baseball Draft, and a total of 32 have inked professional contracts. In 2010, he mentored Rob Segedin and helped turn him into a third-round pick of the New York Yankees, and he eventually reached the big leagues with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Mississippi State

Gautreau has been a part of three (2018, 2019 & 2021) College World Series appearances during his time at Mississippi State and helped the team to the 2021 College World Series Championship.

Behind the guidance of Gautreau, sophomore Dakota Jordan etched his name into the record book, while David Mershon and Connor Hujsak had career years during the 2024 season. Jordan became the 56th All-American at MSU after leading the team in batting average (.354), home runs (20) and RBIs (72). He was only the tenth player in program history to hit 20 homers in a single season. Sophomore David Mershon became the first Dawg shortstop since 2017 to earn First Team All-SEC honors. Mershon led the team with 27 stolen bases and was second with a .347 batting average. Hujsak led the Dawgs to two victories in the SEC Tournament as recorded the winning hits, including a two-run homer against Ole Miss. Hujsak’s batting average of .325 was a career-best for the senior.

Under the coaching of Gautreau, sophomore Hunter Hines etched his name into the State record book. Hines became the first Dawg since Brent Rooker in 2017 to hit 20 or more homers in a season. Hines hit 22 on the season, the sixth most in program history for a single season. As a team, the Dawgs hit 91 homers, the fourth most in a single season, as they had two players with 12 or more, and 11 players hit a bomb on the season. Freshman Ross Highfill became the first player since Rooker in 2017 to hit three home runs in a single game when he accomplished the feat against Lipscomb on March 11.

The 2022 season saw the Dawgs rank 26th in the nation in home runs by hitting 95 as they had four players hit 14 or more home runs on the season, while 12 players on the team hit a bomb on the season. The 95 home runs on the season are the third most in a single season in school history. Infielder RJ Yeager led the team in hitting (.317), home runs (18), doubles (15), and RBIs (56) en route to First Team All-SEC honors, as well as earning three All-American Teams (ABCA, NCBWA, and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper).

Leading the offensive attack that led the Dawgs to the first-ever National Championship. He guided Tanner Allen to a breakout season. Allen hit .383 on the season with 19 doubles, 11 home runs, and 66 RBI as he was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Year. Allen was a unanimous First-Team All-American selection following the season. Allen's 100-hit campaign in 2021 was only the 7th time a Diamond Dawg collected 100 or more hits in a season, and it was the third time since Gautreau has been at MSU. The 50 wins during the 2021 season was only the sixth time in program history with 50 or more wins.

The 2020 season saw only 16 games played before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the college baseball season; however, Gautreau had five hitters boasting .300 batting averages or better. Of those five, freshman Kamren James ranked among the top rookies in the SEC in six offensive categories and was one of only seven SEC freshmen to end the season with a .300 average.

The duo of Justin Foscue and Jordan Westburg were each drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft, while JT Ginn was picked in the second round by the New York Mets. Mississippi State's three picks in the first two rounds of the draft tied for the most over the first 60 picks in the 2020 draft.

Gautreau has tutored the SEC's hits leader during the 2018 and 2019 seasons, as Jake Mangum posted the first back-to-back 100-hit seasons in MSU history and just the fourth occurrence in SEC history. In the process, Mangum ended his career as the SEC's all-time hits leader and finished No. 4 on the NCAA's career list with 383 hits over his four seasons. He piled up 209 hits over his last two seasons, including a school single-season record of 108 in 2019.

He helped the freshmen tandem of infielder Tanner Allen and outfielder Rowdey Jordan earn Freshman All-America honors at the conclusion of 2018. Allen, who also earned a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team, started all 68 contests during his rookie season and hit .287 with 28 extra-base hits and ranked No. 2 on the team with 45 RBIs. Jordan hit .321 during his freshman campaign, starting 51 contests and ranking No. 2 on the team with seven home runs.

In 2019, Gautreau saw his offensive unit rank among the top five nationally in four different offensive categories. The 2019 squad piled up a nation's-leading 166 doubles – the first MSU team to lead the country in an offensive category in program history – and also ranked among the top five in hits (2nd; 755), runs scored (4th; 530) and batting average (5th; .315). The doubles total also ranks No. 4 all-time in SEC history.

In 2018, Gautreau's impact was immediately apparent as a recruiter and in his approach to coaching. After a slow start at the plate, State raised its batting average by nearly 20 points over the season's final two months, leading the way in a dramatic run to the program's 10th trip to Omaha.

MSU hit just .271 from February to April and scored 5.1 runs per game. Beginning in May, the offense saw a jump in production, hitting .289 during that stretch and scoring 7.7 runs per contest. The uptick in offensive production also saw the offense produce RBIs on a much higher level, jumping from 4.6 to 6.9 runs batted in per game while cutting down the strikeout number by 1.5 per game.

Tulane

In five seasons at his alma mater, Gautreau helped Tulane rebuild the foundation that he helped establish as a student-athlete on the Uptown campus. He led the recruiting efforts that landed the No. 4 national class during this final recruiting cycle with the program and also served as the interim head coach in 2014.

His recruiting prowess was on display as Perfect Game tabbed the 2013 signing class the No. 4 class, and for good reason, as it included three Baseball America Top-500 prospects in shortstop Stephen Alemais, catcher Jake Rogers and right-handed pitcher J.P. France. France spent his graduate transfer season at Mississippi State in 2018 and was a 14th-round pick by the Houston Astros in the 2018 MLB Draft. Alemais and Rogers were selected in the third round of the 2016 Draft, and Rogers made his MLB debut in July 2019.

From 2010-14, he tutored some of the finest hitters to come through Tulane. In 2010, Rob Segedin boasted a .434 batting average to rank second all-time on the program's single-season charts, becoming just the fifth player in school history to top the .400 mark for a season. Along with Segedin (2010), three others joined him as being picked in the MLB Draft: Garrett Cannizaro (2013), Brennan Middleton (2013), and Jeremy Schaffer (2012).

On-Field Success

His nine-year career in professional baseball saw him spend time with the San Diego Padres, Cleveland Indians, and New York Mets organizations. Gautreau reached as high as Triple-A during his professional career after being drafted with the No. 14 overall pick of the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft. During his time in professional baseball, Gautreau moved from third base to second base and was named the No. 3 second base prospect in baseball by Baseball America.

During his collegiate career, Gautreau helped Tulane to 142 victories in three seasons and the program's first College World Series berth in 2001. In his junior season, he featured a .355 batting average, 44 extra-base hits, and an NCAA-leading 96 RBIs. He was a Golden Spikes Award finalist and a first-team All-America selection as a junior. A two-time Conference USA Player of the Year, Gautreau was named the Conference USA Player of the Decade (1990-2000) in 2005 and was elected to the Conference USA Hall of Fame as a part of the initial induction class in 2019. One of the most decorated players in the history of Tulane baseball, Gautreau was inducted into the Tulane Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.

Gautreau earned seven All-America honors during his time at Tulane, garnering second-team All-America as a sophomore and third-team laurels as a freshman. He was also a first-team Freshman All-American during the 1999 season. Gautreau finished his collegiate career with a .344 average with 58 home runs, 103 walks, 200 runs scored, 233 RBIs, and 275 hits in three collegiate seasons.

He was also a member of the 2000 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. Gautreau hit .348 (32-for-92) with seven doubles and four home runs to go with 20 RBI and a .576 slugging percentage. His time with Team USA also included the 2000 XXI Haarlem Baseball Week title, where he earned MVP honors in helping the Red, White, and Blue to a 6-0 record. That summer, the Collegiate National Team posted a 27-3-1 record.

Personal

Gautreau and his wife, the former Erin Dobyanski, have two sons, William and Weston. Erin was a four-year letter winner for Tulane's women's volleyball program. The McAllen, Texas, native earned his Bachelor of Arts in media arts from Tulane in 2011.