Mike Kunigonis

Mike Kunigonis has brought a grinder’s mentality and work ethic to the NIU baseball program. 2022 marked his eighth season in DeKalb leading the Huskies.

The Huskies went 14-40 in 2022, splitting three of its last four MAC series. NIU had a flair for the dramatic, winning four games in walk-off fashion and having 16 games decided by three runs or less.

NIU went 7-10 in the 2020 season, which was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic that March. The Huskies earned their second win over an ACC program in three years with a 12-3 win over Boston College in Florida. NIU's pitching staff was third in the MAC in strikeouts with 139. In the first season back from the pandemic, NIU went 16-38 in 2021.

In 2019, Kunigonis led NIU to the Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament where the Huskies reached the semifinals and won two games for the first time since 2008. NIU was 20-36 on the season and compiled a 14-12 MAC record, tied for the third-most conference wins in program history. On May 11, Kunigonis won his 100th career game as the Huskies shutout Toledo 4-0.

The Huskies went 20-36 in 2018, highlighted by a 5-3 win at Notre Dame on March 20 for the program's first win over the Fighting Irish since 1995. In 2017, Kunigonis led NIU to a 17-38 overall record and a 11-13 record in the Mid-American Conference. NIU hit for a combined .248 average with a .327 slugging percentage and got on base at a .358 clip. The Huskies averaged eight hits and 4.45 runs per game.

Kunigonis laid the “Huskieball” foundation for his program right away, during his first season in 2015, as the Huskies swept its opening weekend with a pair of wins over South Dakota State and another over Niagara. NIU would go on to finish the season 22-33, recording a 10-17 mark in Mid-American Conference play. The team improved its batting average by 32 points in Kunigonis’ first season and scored 1.24 more runs per game. The Huskies swept their midweek series with UIC, defeating the in-state foe home and away. NIU won 24 games in 2016, going 14-10 in the MAC West to finish second behind Ball State. The Huskies won seven straight games at the end of April into May that season, highlighted by a sweep of Bowling Green in which NIU outscored the Falcons 28-4 with back-to-back shutouts to close the series.

Kunigonis, a veteran Division I coach who spent seven years on the staff at Virginia Tech, was named head coach of the Northern Illinois University baseball program on January 5, 2015.

In seven years at Virginia Tech, Kunigonis worked his way up from volunteer assistant coach (2008-10), to assistant coach (2010-13) before being named associate head coach and recruiting coordinator his final two seasons ago. The Hokies twice advanced to the NCAA Regionals during his time in Blacksburg, earning a No. 1 seed and regional host bid in 2013 when they finished as Atlantic Coast Conference runners-up. He served as Virginia Tech’s hitting coach from 2010-15, and the Hokies ranked among the country’s top offenses in each of those seasons. Tech had the top offense in the ACC in 2014 and ranked in the top 25 nationally in five offensive categories in 2013. The 2011 Virginia Tech team ranked in the top 10 nationally in multiple categories as well.

Over his six seasons, the Hokies had 20 players chosen in the MLB draft, with at least two players drafted each year. In 2010, eight Virginia Tech players were drafted, while six Hokies were selected in the 2013 draft. During Kunigonis’ time with the Hokies, nine position players were chosen in the draft.

Prior to Virginia Tech, Kunigonis spent one season on the staff at Radford University in Virginia, where he coached the outfielders, worked with the hitters and directed the camps.

Kunigonis’ experience includes five seasons at two institutions in western New York. He was the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Canisius College in Buffalo during the 2005, 2006 and 2007 seasons, where he also coached the hitters, catchers and outfielders and was also on the staff at Niagara University in a similar capacity for two seasons. Both teams advanced to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament during Kunigonis’ time in their dugouts.

As a player, Kunigonis played four seasons at American International College. A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, Kunigonis earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and sociology from AIC in 2001, and completed his master’s degree in sports administration at Canisius in 2006.

He is the Huskies’ fifth head baseball coach since the program was resurrected in 1991 and the 14th since the team’s first season in 1900.