Mizzou Softball has become one of the top programs in the nation, and is a perennial contender to reach the Women's College World Series under the direction of Head Coach Ehren Earleywine, a mid-Missouri native who enters his 10th year leading the charge for the Tigers. With a career winning percentage of .743 (557-193 over 12 seasons), Earleywine is truly among the top coaches in the nation. He is the 13th-winningest coach in NCAA Division I history entering this season, according to winning percentage.
Mizzou enjoyed a proud softball tradition before Earleywine took over in 2007, but he's clearly since taken the Tigers to the next level. In the seven seasons before Earleywine's arrival, Mizzou averaged 32.0 wins per season (2000-06). The Tigers have averaged 45.7 wins per season in Earleywine's nine seasons in the dugout.
Earleywine has built the Tigers by striving for excellence in all phases of the game. Shut-down pitching, consistent fielding and explosive offense have been constants during his tenure in Columbia. In his nine seasons at the helm of the Missouri softball program, the Tigers have made three Women's College World Series appearances, recorded the first three 50-win seasons in school history and have advanced to seven NCAA Super Regionals. These accomplishments have come while building an incredible .749 winning percentage to rank as one of the winningest programs in the nation since 2007.
Mizzou Softball has competed at the highest level during Earleywine's time leading the Tigers, including the capture of two of the programs' seven all-time conference championships. As part of a stellar 50-12 overall record in 2009, Mizzou won the 2009 Big 12 Conference Tournament. The Tigers followed that up with a Big 12 Regular Season Championship in 2011, posting a stout 53-10 overall record. In Mizzou's first season of Southeastern Conference action in 2013, Earleywine's squad left an immediate impression. The Tigers placed third in the league's regular season standings before finishing as runners-up at the SEC Tournament.
Earleywine's teams have been ranked in the top-10 for seven straight seasons, including as high as No. 3 in the nation during a three-week run in 2010. Mizzou has finished as a top-10 team in the polls three times under Earleywine's leadership.
Big offense led to success in Earleywine's first season in 2007, in which he took a team that posted just 26 wins and had a losing record the year before and turned them into a 40-win squad that finished the year with a regional bid and a top-20 national ranking.
Named Missouri's head coach in August of 2006, Earleywine's model for winning was rewarded with a seven-year contract extension on Aug. 31, 2011, making him the first Olympic coach in Missouri history to receive an extension greater than five years. In his nine seasons at Missouri, Earleywine has managed a record of 411-138 and became the fastest Missouri softball coach to reach 300 victories. Since beginning his head coaching career in 2003 at Georgia Tech, Earleywine has turned in a .743 winning percentage, the 13th-best amongst active Division I coaches. He was the fifth fastest coach to reach 100 wins in NCAA Division I softball history.
In nine seasons, the three-time conference coach of the year has become the first Missouri softball coach to lead his squad to six-straight NCAA Regional titles, doing so on the road in 2008 and again at home in Columbia, Mo., from 2009-13. In fact, Mizzou was one of only three schools in the country from 2008-13 to win six-straight regional titles. The Tigers were joined by Arizona State and Florida in achieving that feat.
CAREER HONORS
- 2005 ACC Coach of the Year
- 2007 Big 12 Coach of the Year
- 2009 NFCA Midwest Staff of the Year
- 2010 NFCA Midwest Staff of the Year
- 2011 Big 12 Coach of the Year
- 2012 NFCA Midwest Staff of the Year
Since Earleywine took the reins, Missouri's batting averages have been on the rise, which includes a .313 mark in 2009, a .304 mark in 2013, .310 rate in 2014 and .320 posting in 2015. Additionally, the team ERA has steadily been on the decline, highlighted by 2011's 1.40 mark, the Tiger's best end of the year ERA since 1998.
Mizzou's entire softball staff has received deserved recognition while helping the program ascend to the upper echelon of college softball. Earleywine and crew were named NFCA Midwest Region Staff of the Year three times in a four-year span (2009, 2010, & 2012).
In addition to the success Missouri has seen on the field, Earleywine's squad has received exemplary marks in the classroom. Mizzou posted a 994 NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) for the 2011-12 academic year, the second highest mark for an SEC softball program, and they followed by ranking third in the SEC in figures for the latest report (May, 2014). In 2011, Missouri led the Big 12 with a 997 APR rate for the softball team, while 10 Tigers were named to the Academic All-Big 12 list, the most in the league. They followed that up with eight in 2012.
In a new league of competition, Mizzou's book smarts were apparent again. 10Â Tigers were honored to the SEC's Academic Honor Roll. Additionally, the team grade point average (GPA) under Earleywine has never fallen below the adept mark of 3.0. It has even soared as high as 3.4 in recent years, illustrating Mizzou's commitment to excellence on and off the field.
Prior to his career at Missouri, Earleywine spent five seasons at Georgia Tech, of which he served as head coach for the final three. Earleywine's teams made five consecutive NCAA Regional appearances, finishing runner-up on three occasions. The Ramblin' Wreck claimed Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season and tournament titles in 2005 and to his credit, Earleywine was named the 2005 ACC Coach of the Year. Among his accomplishments, Earleywine's squads broke every offensive record in school history, setting eight ACC records along the way. In 2006, Georgia Tech displayed the top offensive season for any program in ACC history. Named the top assistant coach at Georgia Tech in 2002, Earleywine served as the hitting and infield coach. During his two seasons as assistant coach, the Ramblin' Wreck hitters broke 16 school records and two conference records.
A 1994 graduate of Westminster College, Earleywine played baseball at Missouri State University (formerly Southwest Missouri State) for one year before transferring to the Fulton, Mo., school for the remainder of his collegiate career. Earleywine served as an assistant coach at Westminster through the 1997 campaign under the guidance of former Major League Baseball outfielder and former Tiger, Phil Bradley, then took the reins as head coach until 1999. Following his time at Westminster, Earleywine was named assistant baseball coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2000, remaining there until 2002 before taking the head assistant coaching position at Georgia Tech.
A standout in men's major fastpitch softball, Earleywine was a four-time member of Team USA (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003) including being named captain for his final two seasons with the national team. In 2002, Team USA captured its first-ever gold medal in the Pan Am Qualifier, where Earleywine hit .429. During his career, Earleywine collected four medals, one gold, two silver and one bronze. At the 2003 Pan Am Games, hosted by the Dominican Republic, Earleywine helped lead Team USA to a silver medal, doing so again in the 1999 Pan Am Games held in Winnipeg, Canada. Earleywine and his team earned bronze in Valencia, Venezuela, at the 1998 Pan Am Qualifier.
A six-time American Softball Association (ASA) All-American, Earleywine was an All-World selection in 1999 by the International Softball Congress (ISC). As a member of the Decatur Pride, Earleywine's team earned the ASA Softball National Championship title in 1999, also taking World Championship honors in 2001 with the ISC.
Earleywine is a graduate of Jefferson City High School and is married to Linn, Mo., native Lisa. The two have two children, son, Connor, and daughter, Duran.
