DeLAND, Fla. - Embry-Riddle baseball pitching coach Dave Therneau has been named the next pitching coach and assistant recruiting coordinator at NCAA I Stetson after eight seasons on staff with the Blue and Gold. Therneau departs from ERAU after helping the Eagles to a 360-135 (.727) record since the 2008 season when he joined Head Coach Randy Stegall's staff.

"I am excited for this new opportunity at a program with such rich baseball tradition as Stetson, Therneau said. "I'm looking forward to working with Head Coach Pete Dunn and taking on this new challenge."

A 2000 graduate of Bellevue University, Therneau enjoyed a succesful minor league career in the Cincinnati Reds organization before an arm injury brought his playing career to a halt and led the Denton, Texas native to coaching.

Therneau has overseen an Eagle pitching staff that was consistently amongst the best in the NAIA, posting team ERAs in the top ten nationally in seven of his eight seasons, including leading the country in 2010 (2.63). While with the Eagles, Therneau's pitchers have earned 17 NAIA All-America honors and 27 All-Conference accolades with back-to-back-to-back Pitcher of the Year awards coming from 2009-11 (Justin Zinkovich, Austin Quinn, Tucker Jensen) while an unprecedented 36 Sun Conference Pitcher of the Week honors came to ERAU pitchers from 2008-15.

The Eagles posted a cumulative ERA of 3.05 under Therneau, including an impressive 2.51 ERA in league play as the Blue and Gold went 168-39 (.812) in The Sun Conference. Embry-Riddle claimed seven TSC regular season titles with five TSC Tournament crowns and most impressively, made seven trips to the Avista-NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho, earning three national semifinal finishes.

"This is a big loss for our program," Stegall commented. "Dave will be hard to replace. He did such an unbelievable job, not only with our pitchers, but with our position guys and with recruiting. Stetson has a great program and Dave will make an immediate impact. I am very grateful to Dave and everything he contributed to the Embry-Riddle program. I wish him the best at Stetson."

Therneau proved to be an elite developer of talent with the Eagles, having eight pitchers selected in the MLB Draft, including the two highest selections in ERAU history in Daniel Poncedeleon (9th Round - 2014) and Tyler Cyr (10th Round - 2015). Therneau's pupils accumualted many accolades while under his tutelage, including Jordan Roberts, Zinkovich and Quinn earning first team All-America accolades in 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively; Phillip Reamy posting one of the greatest statistical seasons in NAIA history in 2010 (5-0, 10 SV, 0.24 ERA, 1 ER); Kevin Maloney (2011-13) becoming the all-time winningest pitcher in NAIA history according to winning percentage (31-2, .939) and Stetson Nelson putting together one of the greatest postseason pitching performances in NAIA history this past season (5 G, 4 GS, 4-0, 1 CG, 0.88 ERA, 41.0 IP, 13 H, 4 ER, 24 Ks, .097 BAA).

"Embry-Riddle is a special place," Therneau said. "I've made lifelong relationships here and we've enjoyed a tremendous amount of success. I've been able to mentor some special young men while here, and I will miss all the staff members I've worked with, but most of all, I will miss the players."