Jason Gill

Jason Gill, who has College World Series experience as both a player and coach, and guided Loyola Marymount to the brink of a 2019 NCAA Super Regional appearance, was named USC baseball’s head coach on June 14, 2019. He enters his second season at the helm heading into 2021.

Gill's first season with the Trojans (2020) was cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but in 15 games, USC went 10-5, showing great improvement both offensively and on the mound. The Trojans raised their average by 9 points from the previous season to .281 and lowered their ERA by over 2 runs a game to 2.42 over the course of the abbreviated sample size. He also coached Ben Wanger to All-American second team recognition and Ethan Hoopingarner to Freshman All-American honors in 2020.

Gill came to USC after 11 seasons at Loyola Marymount, where he posted a 322-286-1 (.530) overall record. In 2019, he led the Lions to a 34-25 record and into the NCAA postseason, with LMU reaching the final of the Los Angeles Regional after wins over Baylor and UCLA, before narrowly falling to the top-seeded Bruins.

Gill’s LMU teams have made the West Coast Conference Tournament (top four teams in the conference) five of the last six years, with the Lions winning the tournament title this past season and a regular season title in 2017.

He has made a total of four trips to Omaha as a player and coach, reaching the College World Series as a player with Cal State Fullerton in 1994 and then returning as an undergraduate assistant under legendary coach Augie Garrido with the Titans’ 1995 National Championship squad. Gill later served under George Horton as an assistant coach at his alma mater, helping to lead the Titans to CWS appearances in 2006 and 2007. In total, Gill has been to the postseason nine times as a coach.

Known as an outstanding recruiter and developer of talent, Gill has seen 31 Lions selected in the MLB Draft during his tenure at LMU and three of them have reached the big leagues, including David Fletcher with the Angels. Over the entirety of his coaching career, both as an assistant and head coach, Gill has worked with 24 players who went on to make it to the majors. Notable names on that list include Khris Davis, Justin Turner, Lyle Overbay, Aaron Rowand, Mike Lamb, Mark Kotsay and Jeremy Giambi.

Gill brought in a pair of Top 25 recruiting classes while at LMU, something that hadn’t been done in 15 years at the school. In total during his time as an assistant, Gill served as a collegiate recruiting coordinator for seven seasons, recording six recruiting classes in the Top 30 and two in the Top 10 over that span to solidify his place as one of the top recruiters in the country. In his 11 years as a head coach at LMU, Gill helped develop 62 All-WCC players, four WCC Defensive Players of the Year, two WCC Pitchers of the Year and five All-Americans.

Prior to his time at LMU, he was the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator under Horton at both Cal State Fullerton and Oregon, bringing in a Top 10 recruiting class in 2007 at Fullerton. He was Horton's first hire as both men left Cal State Fullerton to begin the reconstruction of the Oregon baseball program in 2007.

Gill spent the three years (2001-04) preceding his time with the Titans at UC Irvine, where he brought in the No. 8 class in the country for the Anteaters in 2002 and had a pair of Top 30 classes following that. At UC Irvine, he helped guide the program back from extinction and worked alongside then UCI head coach John Savage to get the Anteaters back to the postseason in 2004.

Gill was an assistant at LMU in 1999 and 2000, helping to lead the Lions to WCC titles in both seasons, and prior to that worked as an assistant at Nevada (1997-98), helping to lead the Wolfpack to the program’s second ever postseason appearance.

He also comes to the Trojans with Team USA experience, serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. Collegiate National Team in both 2012 and 2016.