On June 20, 2019, Southern Illinois University Director of Athletics Jerry Kill announced Lance Rhodes as the program's new head coach. Rhodes is a Sikeston, Missouri, native, and joined the Saluki baseball program from the University of Missouri, where he had served as the head assistant and recruiting coordinator. Prior to his time at the University of Missouri, Rhodes served as the recruiting coordinator at Southeast Missouri State University; helping them to three years of program dominance by winning three straight Ohio Valley Conference championships (2014, 2015, 2016).[citation needed]
SIU baseball started as a club sport in 1921, lasting until 1924. From 1925 until 1946, the school did not have a baseball program.
In 1947, Abe Martin revived the program as an intercollegiate sport and it has remained ever since, being an elite program in the late 1960s through the 1980s.
SIU plays its home games at Itchy Jones Stadium.[2]
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