What you should know about new USI baseball coach Chris Ramirez
EVANSVILLE – New University of Southern Indiana baseball coach Chris Ramirez is happy to be closer to home.
He and his wife, Lindsay, are both from southeast Iowa. What used to be a 14-hour drive from North Carolina to visit their families is now six hours from Evansville. They are looking forward to moving back to the Midwest soon and looking for schools for their three children, Layla, Mia and Stryker, to attend.
Ramirez, who was announced as the Screaming Eagles’ sixth head coach on July 7, will be leading a Division I program for the first time. He is already familiar with USI, having coached their former Great Lakes Valley Conference opponent, the University of Illinois Springfield, from 2014-19. He feels his time with the Prairie Stars gave him a little connection to the Eagles.
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“I know I’m familiar with the success they’ve had and the tradition of winning,” Ramirez said. “When I got the job at Illinois Springfield, the pride of the conference was USI baseball. Even though I’m not an alumnus, I feel like I understand the alumni’s expectations very well. And I know they’re very proud of the program they’ve built.”
Ramirez led Illinois Springfield to the NCAA II Midwest Regional and GLVC regular-season championship in 2018, then to an appearance in the Midwest Super Regional the following spring. His success continued over the next five seasons at Lenoir-Rhyne, making the team a regional contender in 2022 and leading it to the South Atlantic Conference title this year. Ramirez has a 351-202-1 record in his 11 years as head coach.
He has experienced DI competition up close, both as a player at High Point and as an assistant at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and has learned a lot at each stop, especially from the two D-II programs.
“It’s a validation that our program works,” Ramirez said. “And that’s true for both public and private schools, from the Midwest to the Southeast. I’m excited to be able to introduce this program and implement it with USI at the Division I level.”
Ramirez is also proud of the accomplishments of his predecessor, Tracy Archuleta, at USI. He led the Eagles for 18 years and became the winningest coach in program history with a record of 571-383. The two-time D-II Coach of the Year is now at Indiana State.
“I think Coach Archuleta and I had a good, competitive relationship that I respected and valued,” Ramirez said. “Whenever (Illinois Springfield) played USI or USI played us, there was a handshake and a greeting, but we both knew we were there for business. He was there to win and I was there to win. I think his attitude matches mine, especially on game days.”
USI is looking to make a big leap forward in its third year in DI. The Eagles’ last winning season was 2021, and since then they have a 65-98 record. They’ve also lost several players to the transfer portal, including some to Indiana State. Ramirez’s main goal for his team is to take things day by day.
“We’ve been underdogs before, but we’ve never expected to lose,” he said. “So if we’re playing one game at a time, and I don’t expect to lose no matter what game we’re in, I guess it’s a 56-0 mentality until somebody changes that. We’re playing one game at a time until somebody upsets us.”
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Ramirez and his coaching staff are building USI’s roster out of Evansville, and they’ve already added a ton of players this month, while some local talent has also joined the Eagles.
“We want the best guys from the area to have the opportunity to stay home and play for us,” Ramirez said. “We’re definitely excited about how talented high school baseball is in Evansville and the surrounding communities. And we’re definitely going to work hard to get to know the high school and travel ball coaches from Evansville.”
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