Fresno State Athletics
Baseball
- Title:
- Volunteer Assistant Coach
Pat Waer enters his 10th year as an assistant coach on Mike Batesole’s staff and his 12th year as a Division 1 baseball coach in 2021. This comes after a six-year stint as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Fresno State in 2006 and 2008-2012. He coached at Fresno City College in 2007 as the hitting and catching coach.
Coach Waer returned to Mike Batesole’s staff in the fall of 2017. His primary duties include coaching third base, assisting with hitters and team defense, coaching the outfielders, as well as assisting with the team’s academic study program.
In his time as an assistant to Mike Batesole, the Bulldogs have won six WAC championships, one MWC championship, participated in seven NCAA regionals, a Super Regional, and won the 2008 National Championship. The 'Dogs went 303-188-1 (.617) over that span averaging 38 wins per season. In 2012, Waer left for his alma mater, Washington State University, and served as the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator in the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
As a recruiting coordinator, his last seven recruiting classes included 17 drafted high school players, 32 first-team All-WAC selections, five WAC MVP’s, two WAC pitchers of the year, nine All-Americans, four freshman All-Americans, five All-PAC 12 award winners, one Golden Spikes Award semi-finalist, 51 major league baseball draft selections, and two first round picks. His 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 recruiting classes at Fresno State were ranked nationally by Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America at 10th, 28th, 19th, and 20th respectively.
Waer has signed and coached 11 players who have gone on to play in the Major Leagues, including Fresno State’s Taylor Ward of the Los Angeles Angels, Austin Wynns of the Baltimore Orioles, Jordan Luplow of the Cleveland Indians and Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees who won the 2017 MLB Home Run Derby and the 2017 American League Rookie of the Year. He has also coached 69 MLB draft selections over his time as a collegiate coach.
Over the course of the last two decades as a head coach (11), assistant high school and junior college coach (2), and a Division 1 assistant (10), Waer has coached in 1,024 baseball games where he has a record of 611-410-3 for a .598 winning percentage.
With the COVID-19 pandemic cutting the 2020 season to only 16 games, the Bulldogs went 9-7 with a season-opening series win over UC Irvine, a four-game sweep over Columbia and midweek wins over Cal Poly, Seton Hall and Pacific. The Diamond 'Dogs powered their way to 23 home runs in 16 contests to rank seventh in the nation in long balls and home runs per game (1.44). The 'Dogs led the Mountain West and ranked 22nd in the country with a .478 slugging percentage.
The 2019 season saw the Bulldogs return to the top of the Mountain West Conference, the NCAA postseason, as well as a final National Ranking of No. 21 by Baseball America. The Dogs finished 40-16-1 while reaching the finals of the Stanford regional.
In his first year back with the Bulldogs in 2018 after a five-year leave, the Diamond 'Dogs went 30-24 finishing fifth in the Mountain West. Three 'Dogs, Edgar Gonzalez, Korby Batesole and Zach Ashford went on to earn All-MW honors, while Gonzalez, Batesole and Jeremiah Burks went on to be selected in the 2018 MLB Draft.
As a high school baseball coach from 1996-2005 and from 2014-2017, Waer has a head coaching record of 160-118-2 for a .571 winning percentage. He also served as a high school assistant football coach at three different high schools during that time. Waer’s teams reached the California Interscholastic Federation semifinals three times and he was named the 2004 Tri River Athletic Conference Coach of the Year by his peers. Waer was the head baseball coach at Dinuba High School (1999-2002), Central High School (2003-2005), and Clovis East High School (2015-2017).
Waer grew up in Fresno, Calif. and prepped at Clovis West High School and Mead High School in Spokane, Wash. After moving to Spokane following his sophomore year of high school, he was a Greater Spokane League All-Star Selection. Waer also played in the 1990 Spokane High School All-Star Game. Waer's Mead High School teams won back-to-back GSL championships and the 1989 team finished 2nd in the State Championship Tournament.
Waer played collegiate baseball at Washington State University, as a catcher and infielder, for College Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Bobo Brayton. In his college career, Waer hit .302 with 15 home runs and 126 RBI.
Waer earned his B.A. in history from Washington State University in 1995. He also has a Master's degree in education from National University in 2000 and a California teaching credential in the social sciences. He currently teaches full-time as a social science instructor at Gateway High School in the Clovis Unified School District.
Coach Waer and his wife Erin have four children, Jackson, Bradley, Brenna, and Alex.
