Bill Walkenbach is an American college baseball coach, currently the head coach of

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Previously, he was the head coach at

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

from 2009 season to 2015 season and at

Franklin & Marshall Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1787 as Franklin College and later merged with Marshall College in 1853, it is one of the oldest colleges in the United St ...

from 2006 to 2008. Walkenbach led both of these schools to an NCAA tournament appearance.

Playing career

Walkenbach attended Cornell, where he played baseball from 1995 to 1998. A shortstop, he was named All-Ivy League as a first-teamer in his freshman and sophomore seasons and a second-teamer in his junior and senior seasons.

Coaching career

Assistant positions

Walkenbach's coaching career began in the early 2000s, when he served as an assistant at

Emory Emory may refer to: Places * Emory, Texas, U.S. * Emory (crater), on the Moon * Emory Peak, in Texas, U.S. * Emory River, in Tennessee, U.S. Education * Emory and Henry College, or simply Emory, in Emory, Virginia, U.S. * Emory University, in Atl ...

from 2002 to 2003. In 2003, Walkenbach served as assistant coach of the

Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox The Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox, or Y-D Red Sox, are a collegiate summer baseball team based in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Red Sox play th ...

, a

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

team in the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over 1,000 forme ...

. His first Division I came as an assistant at

from 2004 to 2005. In 2005, the Big Red won their first Gehrig Division title but lost to

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in the Ivy Championship Series.

Franklin & Marshall

His first head coaching job was at

(F&M), where he coached from 2006 to 2008, replacing Brett Boretti, who had left to become the head coach at Columbia. In three seasons, the Diplomats had a 69–42 record under Walkenbach. They won the

Centennial Conference The Centennial Conference is an intercollegiate athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Chartered member teams are located in Maryland and Pennsylvania; associate members are also located in New York and Virginia. Ele ...

regular season title in 2006 and 2007 and the Centennial Tournament in 2006. In the 2006 NCAA tournament, the team went 1–2 in the Mid-Atlantic Regional. It beat Gwynedd Mercy in the opener, then lost to

TCNJ The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public university in Ewing Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Established in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, TCNJ was the first normal school, ...

and

Montclair State Montclair State University (MSU) is a Public university, public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Clifton, New Jersey, Clifton and into Little Falls, New Jersey, Little Falls. As of fall 2018, ...

and was eliminated. F&M's Ted Serro won the 2006 Centennial Pitcher of the Year award, and Gary Kruger was named the Player of the Year. Serro was selected by the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

in the 2006 MLB Draft.

Cornell

Ahead of the 2009 season, Walkenbach was hired as the head coach at

. He replaced his old coach,

Tom Ford Thomas Carlyle Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched Tom Ford (brand), his eponymous brand in 2005, having previously been the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent (brand), Yves Sai ...

, who was demoted to associate head coach. In

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, Cornell shared the Gehrig Division title with

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

. They defeated the Tigers in the divisional playoff game but lost to Dartmouth in the Ivy Championship Series. After losing records in conference in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, Cornell won the Gehrig Division again in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. The Big Red went 29-14-1 (15-5 Ivy) in the regular season. Cornell hosted a rematch against Dartmouth in the Ivy Championship Series at

Hoy Field David F. Hoy Field, usually referred to simply as Hoy Field, was a baseball field at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It was home to the Big Red baseball team from 1922 to 2022, when the team moved to a newly constructed facility east of ...

. After splitting the first two games, Cornell won the decisive third game 3–1 in 11 innings on a Chris Cruz

walk-off home run In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. For a home run to end the game, it must be hit in the bottom of the final inning and generate enough runs to exceed the opponent's score. Because the opponent will not have an opp ...

. It was Cornell's first Ivy League Title and gave them an automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA tournament. They went 0–2 at the Chapel Hill Regional, losing to host

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

7-4 and second-seeded

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of universities in North Carolina by enrollment, fourth largest university in North Carolina and the only one in the state with s ...

10–6. Between 2009 and 2015, Cornell had one major award winner and two draftees under Walkenbach. In 2011, the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

selected Jadd Schmeltzer in the 49th round. In 2012, pitcher Kellon Urbon was unanimously selected the Ivy League Rookie of the Year. In 2014, the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. The franchise was established ...

took pitcher Brent Jones in the fourth round of

the draft Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Prior to the 2016 season, Walkenbach left Cornell to accept the head coaching position at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a

program in his hometown.

Head coaching record

Below is a table of Walkenbach's yearly records as a collegiate head baseball coach.

Personal

Walkenbach's wife, Beth, also graduated from Cornell. She has served as a

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

coach at

, and

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

References

External links

April 2011 Interview
at Cornell.edu {{DEFAULTSORT:Walkenbach, Bill Living people Baseball coaches from California Cape Cod Baseball League coaches Cornell Big Red baseball coaches Cornell Big Red baseball players Emory Eagles baseball coaches Franklin & Marshall Diplomats baseball coaches Georgia State University alumni Sportspeople from Claremont, California Year of birth missing (living people)