Carlisle Koestler returned to his roots, as the former Hinds baseball standout joined the Eagles staff as the program’s pitching coach for the 2022-2023 season.
“Carlisle is a star in the making, and we are super excited about him coming back to Hinds, this time as our pitching coach,” head coach Dan Rives said. "He accomplished some great things on the mound here in Raymond, as well as at Southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi State, where he won a national championship. Carlisle is very intelligent, yet very competitive, and I know he will bring those same qualities to our pitching staff.”
With Koestler’s move to the pitching role, it moves current assistant coach Josh Clarke to the offensive side again as the program’s hitting coach, where he previously served his final two seasons at Belhaven University prior to coming to Hinds.
“On the flip side, this move allows Josh to move back to the offensive side of the ball and is a move that he and I are both very excited about,” Rives said. “He was in charge of the offense in his final two seasons at Belhaven, and their team set new offensive records in those two years, so our hitters will be in great hands under his care.”
Koestler came to Raymond after a one-year stint as the Director of Baseball Operations at Samford University.
"I'm grateful for the opportunity to come back home and contribute to a program that has given me so much," Koestler said. "I know what the expectations are, and I am excited to help players achieve their goals and ultimately aim for championships."
As a player, the right-hander spent two seasons at Hinds (2015-2016), three seasons at Southeastern Louisiana University (2017-2019) and two seasons at Mississippi State University during his seven-year collegiate career. He redshirted the 2015 season at Hinds, received a medical redshirt at Southeastern in 2019 and received an additional year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
For his career at the four-year level, Koestler was 16-8 in 53 appearances and 217.1 innings, including 36 starts. In MSU’s national championship season of 2021, he was 3-0 in 11 appearances and 19.2 innings on the hill. During the 2016 season at Hinds, he appeared in 25 games with five starts, leading the Eagles in wins (10), saves (3), appearances (25), innings pitched (55.0) and strikeouts (63), while having a team-low .216 batting average against among qualifying pitchers.
