Vanderbilt opened preseason practice on Friday for the 2013 season.
Scott Brown enters his first season as the pitching coach at Vanderbilt.
Brown joins the Commodores after nine successful seasons at St. John's as the Red Storm's pitching coach. During his time at St. John's, Brown oversaw remarkable progress in the Red Storm pitching staff, a group that has had 15 players sign professional contracts in the last eight seasons. Four pitchers (Rob Delaney, Craig Hansen, Anthony Varvaro and Scott Barnes) that Brown mentored at St. John's have played major league baseball.
Led by first team All-BIG EAST and second team All-Region honoree Kyle Hansen, the 2011 staff tossed four shutouts, had 399 strikeouts and limited opponents to just a .261 average. Hansen, who tossed a complete game shutout against BIG EAST foe Notre Dame, set a new school-record with 107.2 innings pitched and finished with 106 strikeouts, good for sixth all-time.
The 2010 pitching staff helped the team win a school-record 43 games and racked up 455 strikeouts, second-most in school history. A third team All-BIG EAST selection, freshman Kyle Hansen earned Freshman All-America honors from Baseball America, Louisville Slugger and the NCBWA, and was the BIG EAST Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Three players--Daniel Burawa (12th round), Bruce Kern (23rd) and Ryan Cole (34th)--were drafted in the MLB Draft and alums Rob Delaney and Anthony Varvaro each made their Major League debuts.
A season after seven pitchers graduated or were drafted, a young 2009 staff that featured four freshmen ranked sixth in the BIG EAST with 328 strikeouts. Brown also saw two of his alums, Rob Delaney and Anthony Varvaro, added to the MLB 40-man rosters for their respective teams.
Brown helped lead the 2008 pitching staff to a 3.78 ERA, which ranked first in the BIG EAST and ninth in the country and gave the Red Storm staff an ERA that ranked in the top ten nationally for the third-straight season. Lefty George Brown was a second team All-American, the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year and a first team all-conference selection, while Scott Barnes (first team) and Colin Lynch (second team) also earned all-conference honors. Five players were also selected in the MLB Draft, as Barnes (8th round), Justin Gutsie (14th), Jared Yecker (22nd), Brown (27th) and Lynch (40th) all signed professional contracts.
The 2007 staff posted a 3.48 ERA, which ranked 10th in the country and second in the BIG EAST, and two pitchers earned All-BIG EAST recognition as southpaw Scott Barnes was named to the first team and lefty George Brown earned third team honors.
In just his third season at St. John's, Brown guided the 2006 pitching staff to an ERA (3.21) that ranked fifth in the country.
The 2005 Red Storm staff had a combined 3.38 ERA and set a school-record with a conference-leading 499 strikeouts. Craig Hansen and Anthony Varvaro each earned All-America honors, while Hansen was also named the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year. Four pitchers also went on to sign professional contracts as Hansen (first round), Varvaro (12th) and Anthony Sullivan (19th) were selected in the amateur draft, and Jim Wladyka signed as a free agent. Hansen went on to became the first player in Red Sox history to make his major league debut the same year he was drafted.
In 2004, his first season at St. John's, Brown guided the Red Storm pitching staff to a 3.86 ERA, which ranked second in the BIG EAST and was nearly a run-and-a-half better than the previous season. Varvaro posted an 8-3 record and earned second-team All-BIG EAST honors, while Hansen set a school-record with 10 saves.
From 2002-04, Brown served as the head coach of the Sanford Mainers of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, one of the top summer wood-bat leagues in the nation. The Mainers won the NECBL Championship in 2004 and Brown was named the league's Manager of the Year.
Brown came to St. John's from the State University of New York at Cortland, where he served for four years as an assistant coach. Brown helped guide the SUNY-Cortland program to a 35-11 record in 2003, including a 15-1 record in the State University of New York Athletic Conference. The Red Dragons won their seventh-straight league title, 12th in 13 years, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for an 11th-straight season. Brown guided the pitchers to a school-record 333 strikeouts during the 2003 season, and the staff finished the season ranked ninth in the country with a 2.93 ERA.
In the summers of 2000 and 2001, Brown was also the head coach for the Cortland Apples of the New York Collegiate Baseball League. He led the team to the league's best regular season record (25-15) in 2000.
Brown first entered the coaching ranks after a stellar three-year pitching career at Cortland. A second-team All-American in 1999 after going 9-1 with a 2.03 ERA, Brown racked up 19 career victories at Cortland, a mark that was tied for fifth-most in school history when he graduated.
Brown spent his freshman season pitching at Division III national power Montclair (N.J.) State.
Brown and his wife Mary have one son, Nolan, and twin daughters, Kelsey and Riley.
