Mizzou hires Southeast Missouri’s Steve Bieser as new baseball coach

Missouri announced Tim Jamieson’s successor Thursday, hiring Southeast Missouri coach Steve Bieser.

Southeast Missouri won three straight Ohio Valley Conference championships under Bieser, who took the Redhawks to the NCAA Tournament this spring for the first time in 14 years. His coaching record was 138-97 in four seasons with the Redhawks.

“When I started my coaching career, I had always dreamed of the opportunity to lead this program,” Bieser said in a release. “There is a strong tradition and rich history of Missouri Tiger baseball. I understand the responsibility and I am fully committed and ready to continue building the tradition.”

Bieser (pronounced BEE-zer) graduated from Ste. Genevieve High, roughly an hour’s drive south of St. Louis. He started his college baseball career at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo., and finished up at Southeast Missouri. Bieser also played 60 games in the major leagues with the Mets and Pirates in the late 1990s.

“As life-long Missourians, my family and I feel truly blessed to be part of the University of Missouri and the Columbia community,” said Bieser, 48.

Last season’s regional appearance was the first for the Redhawks since 2002 and Bieser, who was Southeast’s pitching coach from 2011-12, was Ohio Valley coach of the year in 2014 and 2016. Bieser is the only Ohio Valley coach to lead a baseball team to three straight regular-season titles.

“Steve Bieser is a rising star in the college baseball ranks and a proven winner,” Missouri athletic director Mack Rhoades said in a release. “He has an impressive track-record of success, winning championships at each stop in his coaching career.”

Bieser, who also won two Missouri state championships in seven seasons as the coach at St. John Vianney High in the St. Louis suburbs, will be introduced during a news conference Friday morning at Taylor Stadium in Columbia. Bieser and his wife, Diahann, have four children — a son, Cole, and daughters Whitley, Briley and Carley.

Jamieson went 698-565-2 in 22 seasons with the Tigers, including nine NCAA regional appearances, and had nearly 80 players drafted. He was the longest-tenured coach at Mizzou before his resignation June 11.

Oklahoma State pitching coach Rob Walton emerged earlier in the week as the front-runner for the Mizzou job, but he stayed put when the Cowboys offered to make him one of the nation’s highest-paid assistant coaches, a source told The Star.

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Mizzou hires Southeast Missouri’s Steve Bieser as new baseball coach."