Report: Bolt to tab Rob Childress, Mike Sirianni as assistants
It didn’t take long for Nebraska to find its new pitching coach. As it happens, head coach Will Bolt didn’t have to look that far either.
According to D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers, Nebraska is set to hire Rob Childress as its pitching coach less than a week after the Huskers parted ways with Jeff Christy. Additionally, the Huskers are expected to hire Wichita State assistant Mike Sirianni as the team’s third assistant coach when the new fiscal year begins in July.
The University of Nebraska has yet to officially announce either hire.
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Childress returned to Nebraska’s staff as the director of player development in July of 2021. Before that, he served as the Huskers’ pitching coach from 1998 to 2002 and associate head coach from 2003 to 2005.
NU arms flourished during Childress’ tenure in Lincoln.
Of the five highest single-season strikeout totals in school history, four came under Childress. The 2005 season was his masterpiece. Nebraska set the school record for strikeouts in a season (538), saves (23) and tied for the second-best team ERA in school history (2.69). All this en route to the Huskers’ third College World Series appearance in five years and the first CWS win in program history.
In addition to reaching the NCAA Tournament six times in seven years, Nebraska won three Big 12 regular-season titles and four Big 12 Tournaments with the help of Childress’ guidance.
The Huskers issued fewer than three walks per game over his final five years in the Star City.
Childress left Nebraska in 2006 to become the head coach at Texas A&M. He spent the next 16 seasons in College Station and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for 13 consecutive seasons (2007-19), a school record. His 2019 squad set a school record for strikeouts (673) while finishing second all-time in strikeout-walk ratio (3.35) and third in opponent batting average (.227).
The 54-year-old Childress posted a 622-336-3 record with the Aggies, good for the third-most wins in team history, and tallied appearances at the CWS in 2011 and 2017.
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Bolt, who spent five seasons at Texas A&M as an assistant and third-base coach for Childress, adds his mentor to a staff that currently includes a former Aggie grad assistant in Lance Harvell (2008-09).
More on Mike Sirianni
Sirianni served as the recruiting coordinator for the Shockers since 2019. He pieced together two of the top recruiting classes in Wichita State history with the No. 32 class in 2021 and No. 26 class in 2022 according to Perfect Game.
Some of his top recruits include reliever Aaron Haase (1.78 ERA 25 2/3 IP), infielders Paxton Wallace (.322 BA) and Garrett Kocis (.286 BA), Corrigan Bartlett (.345 BA), and Nebraska transfer Jace Kaminska (2.32 ERA). Each made All-Conference First-Team in the American during the 2021 season which is the most in a single campaign in Shocker history.
The 40-year-old Sirianni is described by HuskerOnline sources as a big-time recruiter and detailed talent evaluator. He turned down an SEC assistant position prior to accepting the job at Nebraska according to sources.
The Indianola, Iowa, native played his college ball for Arkansas State from 2004-05 and Creighton from 2002-03.
