July 6, 2001
ATLANTA – Bobby Moranda, who was recognized by Baseball America magazine as one of the top 10 assistant coaches in the nation, joins the Georgia Tech baseball staff as Associate Head Coach, while former Vanderbilt assistant Scott Stricklin has been named Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator, head coach Danny Hall announced today.
Moranda, formerly of Wake Forest, will be in charge of the Tech pitching staff, and Stricklin will be responsible for the Yellow Jackets’ hitters and catchers.
Moranda, 36, joins the Tech staff after spending the last six years as an assistant coach at Wake Forest where he helped lead the Demon Deacons to Atlantic Coast Conference championships in 1998, 1999 and 2001.
“Bobby Moranda is recognized as one of the top assistant coaches in the country,” said Hall. “In his time at Wake Forest, he won three ACC Championships in the last four years. He has sent several pitchers into pro baseball, including a first-round pick two years ago in Mike MacDougal.
“He is an experienced recruiter, a guy that is extremely familiar with the ACC, and he knows what it takes to be successful in college baseball.”
Prior to joining the Wake Forest staff in 1995, Moranda spent six years as an assistant at the University of Virginia.
“Everything at Georgia Tech is first class, from the new stadium, to the coaching staff, to the student-athletes,” said Moranda. “This program has a golden opportunity to host regionals and compete for a national championship, and it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. There is a commitment to competing for a national championship at Tech, and that’s an exciting situation to be around. Georgia Tech is also a great academic institution, and that’s a very important factor to me after working at similar schools in Virginia and Wake Forest.
“I spent six of the best years of my life at Wake Forest and I had the opportunity to work with great people. It’s tough to walk away from there, but this move is the best thing for me and my family.”
Moranda, who had the title of Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Wake Forest, built recruiting classes that were annually ranked among the best in the nation while his pitching staffs attracted national attention from both collegiate baseball experts and professional scouts. He helped develop five freshman All-Americas at Wake Forest, including the National Freshman of the Year in 2001, while several of pitchers have been drafted in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. Including his time at Virginia, Moranda has sent more than 25 total players into professional baseball, including three players drafted in the first round.
A 1986 graduate of Eastern Kentucky with a degree in broadcast management, Moranda helped lead the Colonels to two consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Championships while batting .307 with 20 home runs and 86 RBI in two years as an outfielder. Following his playing career, he stayed at EKU as an assistant coach for three years while working toward his master’s degree in recreation administration.
Stricklin, who was a volunteer coach at Georgia Tech in 1998 and 1999, returns to the Yellow Jackets’ coaching staff after spending the last two years as pitching coach at Vanderbilt.
“In his two years at Vanderbilt, Scott demonstrated that he is an excellent recruiter,” said Hall. “He was responsible for the pitchers and worked with the hitters, and he did a fantastic job with our catchers in his two previous years at Georgia Tech. He played for me at Kent State, and was the starting catcher on two conference championships teams before advancing as high as AAA in professional baseball.”
As the recruiting coordinator at Vanderbilt, Stricklin, 28, attracted a nationally-ranked recruiting class last year which included first-round draft pick Jeremy Sowers as well as highly regarded Scott Shapiro.
“I’m excited to be back at Georgia Tech,” said Stricklin. “I had a great experience at Vanderbilt and I value my time there, but Georgia Tech is a great opportunity to be a part of a highly successful baseball program. At Vanderbilt we recruited the same kind of high caliber student-athletes as Georgia Tech.
“Our goal is to get to Omaha, and we will work together as a coaching staff to get it done.”
While at Georgia Tech during the 1998 and 1999 seasons, Stricklin worked with the catchers and hitters as well as handling duties as first base coach.
A class-A all-star in 1994, Stricklin played five seasons of minor league baseball, retiring in the spring of 1998 after a major league spring training stint with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Following his selection by Minnesota in the 23rd round of the June 1993 draft, he played the 1994 and 1995 seasons in the Twins organization, reaching the triple-A level. He signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves in 1996, playing double-A ball at Greenville, and then with the Tampa Bay organization in 1997.
Stricklin lettered three seasons as a catcher at Kent State University, earning All-Mid-American Conference honors in 1992 and 1993, and made the 1993 NCAA South II Regional All-Tournament team. In those two seasons, he handled pitching staffs ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation in earned run average. Stricklin graduated magna cum laude from Kent in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing.
“Teaming Bobby and Scott together gives us two excellent coaches and two great recruiters,” said Hall. “I don’t think that there are two better recruiters on the same coaching staff in the country.
“I want our program to go to the next level, and we will have a new stadium and a new coaching staff to help us do that. I’m not content to just get into the NCAA Regionals each year, we want to win national championships. I feel that we have all the ingredients in place to help us accomplish just that.”
