In his fifth season as UCLA’s head baseball coach, John Savage has established the Bruins as a perennial national contender. Savage has led UCLA to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history. UCLA advanced to the Regional Final at Cal State Fullerton in 2008, one year after having advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals for the second time in school history and for the first time since 2000.
Not only has Savage made significant strides on the field, the Bruins fifth-year head coach has found success on the recruiting trail. Savage has quickly turned UCLA into a national baseball power by attracting four top-13 recruiting classes, as ranked by Baseball America, and by playing the most competitive schedules in the nation.
Savage’s guidance, UCLA has totaled 33 wins in each of the last three years, becoming the first Bruin team to win at least 33 games in three consecutive seasons since 1985-1987. Serving as UCLA’s pitching coach, Savage guided the Bruins’ staff to its second-lowest ERA (4.45) in the last 16 years - the lowest ERA in that span (3.77) came in 2006, during Savage’s second season at the helm.
Savage has led UCLA to five consecutive Pac-10 series victories, as the Bruins won two of three games against Washington, Arizona and California in addition to road sweeps of Stanford and USC.
Prior to taking over the UCLA baseball program in 2005, Savage’s coaching career made stops at Nevada, USC and UC Irvine, where he led the Anteaters to the program’s first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance in 2004.
Savage served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Southern California (USC) from 1996 to 2000. Savage coached at the University of Nevada from 1992 to 1996, helping the Wolf Pack compile a 177-82 record in five seasons. Throughout his tenure at Nevada, the baseball program won the 1994 Big West Conference title and strung together its first back-to-back 35-win seasons in school history.
Savage began his coaching career as the pitching coach for Reno (NV) High School during the 1988-1989 school year.
