Silva officially named Arkansas State head baseball coach
UPDATE:
Arkansas State Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Jeff Purinton announced Tuesday that 2023 Southland Conference Coach of the Year Mike Silva, who led Nicholls State to an NCAA Regional each of the last two seasons, has been named the Red Wolves’ sixth all-time head baseball coach.
An introductory press conference open to the public will be held Thursday at noon in the Centennial Bank Athletics Operations Center, located in the north end zone of Centennial Bank Stadium, and streamed live on the Arkansas State Athletics Facebook page (/AStateRedWolves). The press conference will also be carried live on The Ticket Radio Network (95.3 FM, 96.9 FM and 970 AM in Jonesboro and 104.1 FM in Clarendon), the A-State Athletics App and the Varisty Network App.
Silva comes to A-State after spending the last three years at Nicholls, where he led the Colonels to a combined 98 victories, back-to-back Southland Conference Tournament championships (2023 and 2024) and the program’s first regular-season league title (2023). During his time leading the baseball program in Thibodeaux, La., Nicholls had 16 all-conference selections, including three players who were tabbed the league’s Player of the Year, Relief Pitcher of the Year or Freshman of the Year.
“Mike Silva has an outstanding reputation in the college baseball world, possesses an infectious energy, has a strong knowledge of the game and a track record of success, so we’re excited to announce him as our next head baseball coach,” said Purinton. “We completed a thorough national search, and Mike quickly became our top target because it was evident that he was the right fit at the right time.
“His achievements at Nicholls State – turning the program around and leading it to a pair of consecutive NCAA Regionals and multiple conference championships – speaks for itself, but he has also elevated other programs at multiple levels throughout his career. Mike is a proven winner. We want to welcome him, his wife Reagan and son, Dylan, to our Red Wolves family.”
Under Silva’s direction, the Colonels made their first NCAA Regional appearance since 1998 after claiming both the 2023 Southland Conference (SLC) regular-season and tournament championships. Nicholls’ regular-season title was the first in program history, while it became the first team to repeat as SLC Tournament champions since Sam Houston in 2016 and 2017.
Over the span of his three seasons in Thibodaux, Nicholls went from one of the nation’s worst hitting teams to one of the best. The Colonels hit .219 as a team in the season prior to his hiring (2021), ranking 283rd nationally. His inaugural season - 2022 - saw an improvement to .264 (219th) before his squads ranked among the top 100 the last two seasons. In 2023, Nicholls hit .289 as a unit to rank 94th nationally, and that averaged jumped to .303 this season - good for 35th in the country.
“I want to thank Jeff Purinton, (Chancellor) Dr. Todd Shields and the Board of Trustees for the opportunity to lead the Arkansas State baseball program,” said Silva. “There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the bright future of A-State baseball, so I can’t wait to get to get to work building a program that competes for championships in one of the nation’s strongest baseball conferences.
“My family and I are looking forward to living in Jonesboro, becoming part of this great community and developing relationships with everyone. Finally, I also want to thank (Athletics Director) Jonathan Terrell and everyone associated with Nicholls for an incredible three years. It’s a special place, and I’m proud of our teams and everything we accomplished during my time there.”
Most recently, Silva led Nicholls to 38 victories in 2024 to tie its third most in its Division I era. The Colonels finished second in the SLC with a 16-8 mark before posting a perfect 4-0 record in the conference tournament for the second straight season, earning a spot in the Corvallis Regional of the 2024 NCAA Baseball Championship.
Nicholls was a No. 3 seed in a regional for the first time in program history in 2024, capping off a 38-22 season. It marked the first time since 2014-15 with back-to-back 30-plus win seasons for the Colonels. With Southland Conference Player of the Year Edgar Alvarez leading the way, Nicholls ranked top-35 nationally in sacrifice flies (1st, 48), runs scored (22nd, 494), walks (23rd, 322), hit batters (28th, 98), hits (29th, 617), runs per game (31st, 8.2), doubles (32nd, 127) and batting average (35th, .303).
In his second season at Nicholls, Silva led the Colonels to their first Southland Conference regular season title in program history and second SLC Tournament title. Voted sixth out of nine teams in the preseason poll, Nicholls won five of eight conference series to finish with a league-best 15-9 record. The Colonels won 30 games for the first time since 2015, including a 6-5 victory at No. 1 LSU.
Leading Nicholls to its first winning season since 2017, Silva began his tenure in Thibodaux with a 26-25 record in 2022. Picked to finish last in the preseason poll, the Colonels finished fourth with a league record of 12-12. Silva oversaw a large increase in the team batting average from .219 in 2021 to .264 in 2022.
Before taking over as head coach at Nicholls, Silva served as the associate head coach at Louisiana Tech for three seasons, guiding the Bulldog pitching staff to unbridled success. Notably, LA Tech arms composed a Conference USA-best eight shutouts, including a 2-0 victory against No. 1 Arkansas, during the 2021 campaign. LA Tech earned national acclaim that season, emerging as the No. 18 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Statistically, the Bulldog staff ranked fourth in CUSA in strikeouts (454) and third in saves (15) in Silva’s final year in Ruston.
In 2020, Louisiana Tech led CUSA in ERA (3.03), WHIP (1.15) and hits allowed per nine innings (6.78). During Silva’s inaugural season with the Bulldogs, the pitching staff led the league in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.58) and walked the second-fewest batters per nine innings (3.30) while ranking third in strikeouts per nine innings (8.5) and second in ERA (4.28).
Before his stint at Louisiana Tech, Silva served as the pitching coach at Little Rock for two seasons. He guided the Trojans staff to the fifth-lowest ERA in the Sun Belt in 2018 (4.61). The Trojans lowered their team ERA in each of Silva’s two seasons in Little Rock. Silva coached his pitchers to a program-record 471 strikeouts in 2018, good for 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings to rank third in the league.
Silva also brings experience at the professional level after working as an area scout for the San Diego Padres in 2016. He oversaw talent in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Prior to his time as a scout, Silva worked with pitchers at Texas State from 2013-15, guiding the Bobcats to the Sun Belt Tournament all three seasons and six players were selected in the MLB Draft.
Before joining Texas State, Silva was head coach at Galveston College where he led the program to its first regional tournament appearance in five years. It marked the first time in 13 seasons the program finished above .500. Silva’s first head coaching experience came across a three-year stint at Clarendon College, posting 111 victories as the winningest coach in program history.
Silva served two other stints at Clarendon College, from 2003-05 and in 2008, helping the program earn 40 wins and a regional championship appearance. Between stints at Clarendon, Silva spent the 2006 seasons as an assistant at Bethany College where the team posted 40 wins and ranked as high as No. 18 in the NAIA poll.
For his collegiate playing career, Silva served as a catcher at Northwestern Oklahoma State from 2001-03, leading the team to three-straight regional tournaments, a 49-win season in 2001 and the highest national ranking in program history at No. 11.
Silva, a native of Hull, Mass., earned his bachelor’s degree in leadership at Bellevue University in Bellevue, Neb., before receiving his master’s degree in education at East Central University in Ada, Okla. He is married to the former Reagan Page and has a son, Dylan.
Mike Silva File
Coaching Experience
2022-24 | Nicholls, Head Coach
2018-21 | Louisiana Tech, Associate Head Coach
2017-18 | Little Rock, Assistant Coach2013-15 | Texas State, Assistant Coach
2010-12 | Galveston College, Head Coach
2007-09 | Clarendon College, Head Coach
2006 | Bethany College, Assistant Coach
2003-05 | Clarendon College, Assistant Coach
By The Numbers
1 - Conference Coach of the Year
1- All-American1 - Freshman All-American
1- Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist
1- Regular-Season Conference Championship
1- Conference Player of the Year
1- Conference Freshman of the Year
1- Conference Relief Pitcher of the Year
1- 40-win season1 - Conference All-Freshman team selection
2 - Conference Tournament Championships
2 - Conference All-Defensive selections
3 - NCAA Tournament appearances
5- 30-win seasons
6- ABCA/Rawlings All-Region selections
13 - MLB Draft Picks
26 - All-Conference selections
What They Are Saying
“Mike is one of the best coaches in all of college baseball. Very few have the skill set of recruiting, developing, program building and game management. Mike excels at all those areas. One of the best coaches in the country is now at Arkansas State.”
Jay Johnson LSU Head Coach
“What an outstanding hire by Arkansas State. Mike is one of the best baseball minds I’ve ever been around. He made me so much better as a Head Coach having him by my side for three years. He’s very intense, but in a way that the players feed off him. Extremely intelligent and one of the hardest working guys on the field and on the road in our game today. He is definitely one of the young, hungry lions in college baseball. I couldn’t be prouder of the job he did at Nicholls State. His teams will play hard and with an edge. Arkansas State and the Sun Belt got a lot better today with the Silva family making their move to Jonesboro.”
Lane Burroughs Louisiana Tech Head Coach
“Mike Silva was an extremely accomplished assistant during his time with Lane Burroughs at Louisiana Tech. He took on a challenging job at Nicholls State and shattered the ceiling in marvelous fashion. Now, he looks to take some of that magic to Jonesboro and for the Red Wolves. Silva, for Arkansas State, is a grand slam hire in my opinion. He’s an outstanding coach, and an even better person.”
Kendall Rogers D1Baseball.com
“Nicholls State University and our entire community will miss Coach Silva and his family. We are so appreciative of the love he has for our community, our school and our student-athletes. He is a great human first and a great baseball coach with such a bright future. He promised he would come here and win championships, and that’s what he did in his short stint. Nicholls Baseball is on the map! I am grateful for his friendship and leadership, and Arkansas State is getting a great one!”
Jonathan Terrell Nicholls Athletics Director
ORIGINAL STORY:
Arkansas State is set to announce Mike Silva as the next head coach of the Red Wolves baseball program, according to multiple sources.
The news was first reported by Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball.
Silva will come to Jonesboro from Nicholls State, where he led the Colonels to two NCAA tournament appearances in three years. He led the Colonels to back-to-back Southland Conference Championships.
Silva will make the move to Jonesboro after the Colonels season came to an end against Tulane in the Corvallis Regional. The Colonels fells 3-0 to Tulane after falling to UC Irvine in game one, 13-12.
Silva began his coaching career in 2003 as an assistant at Clarendon College before moving to Bethany College. His first head coaching job came in 2007 at Galveston College.
In 2013 he accepted an assistant position at Texas State after scouting for a year for the San Diego Padres. He also had assistant stops at Arkansas-Little Rock and Louisiana Tech before being announced as head coach of Nicholls State on July 9, 2021.
Silva has an all-time record of 98-71-0 (.580) as a head coach. He was 4-0 in Southland Conference tournament games and 0-4 in NCAA Tournament games.
He won the 2023 Southland Conference Regular Season Championship and the Southland Conference Tournament in 2023 and 2024. He was named Southland Conference Coach of the Year in 2023.
RedWolfReport.com will have more on this hire as it becomes available.
