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LANCASTER, PA – Franklin & Marshall Director of Athletics & Recreation Tim Downes has announced the appointment of Cornell University first assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Bill Walkenbach as the College’s 51st head baseball coach. He succeeds Brett Boretti, who completed his fifth year as the Diplomats’ head coach in August of 2005. A standout baseball player for the Big Red from 1995-98, Walkenbach returned to Cornell in August 2003 and served as an infield coach, hitting and base running instructor and first base coach helping the Big Red to statistical improvements in batting average, runs, hits, home runs, runs batted in, walks, strikeouts and stolen bases during his tenure. Last season, he helped Cornell capture the Ivy League Gehrig Division Championship for the first division title in school history with an 11-9 record in the Ivy League while ranking second in fielding percentage (.955) and stolen bases (62).
In two seasons, he coached five position players to All-Ivy
league honors, including shortstop Matt Miller ’05 who earned
first team honors last season and served as the team’s recruiting
coordinator responsible for scouting and recruiting from a
database of over 1,500 names per year.
"Bill has a tremendous baseball background and a familiarity with strong academic environments that will benefit our program and our College community,” noted Downes. “More importantly, however, Bill maintains a set of personal values that are extremely well aligned with the direction of our department. I am excited that he thinks as highly about the Franklin & Marshall community and the future of our baseball program as he does."” Prior to his return to Cornell, Walkenbach was the first assistant coach at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia during the 2002 and 2003 seasons, while obtaining his master's degree in sports administration at Georgia State University. He helped Emory reach the 2003 Division III World Series and achieve a No. 5 ranking in the final national Division III poll as the team led the nation in hits (608), ranked 32nd in batting average (.337) and set a school record for wins in a season with a 37-15 mark. Further, he recruited and coached the first professional draft pick out of Emory since 1993 as Andrew Pinckney was picked by the Boston Red Sox in the 33rd round of the 2004 Amateur Draft. In addition to his coaching responsibilities, he organized and facilitated a fundraising effort for a $60,000 batting cage constructed in 2004 and served as the program’s recruiting coordinator responsible for scouting and managing a database of over 800 names per year. Walkenbach also served as an assistant coach in the Cape Cod League in the summer of 2003 with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, a team that held the league's highest batting average (.260). The Assistant Youth Camp Director, he supervised 15 players/coaches and 130 students per week and was responsible for the camp curriculum and scheduling. In the summer of 2002, he was the infield coach and hitting instructor for the St. Cloud (Minn.) RiverBats that earned a berth in the NorthWoods League playoffs and led the league in home runs with 27 in 64 games under Walkenbach's guidance. In addition, he served as an instructor at the University of Virginia High School Elite Camp (2005), the World Class Baseball All Star Camp at Yale University (2003-05), the Stanford University All-Star Baseball Camp (2004-05) and the Kansas University All-Star Baseball Camp (2004). As a player at Cornell, he was voted team Most Valuable Player in 1995, 1996 and 1997 at Cornell to become the only player to earn the award three times. He tied the record for most career home runs with 21, tied for second in career hits (175) and earned All-Ivy League first team honors in 1995 and 1996 at shortstop. The recipient of a Charles Alberding Scholarship in 1998, he garnered Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors as a freshman and was a two-time second-team all-league pick in 1997 and 1998. A native of Claremont, California, Walkenbach is a 1998 graduate of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration and is married to Cornell University assistant field hockey coach Beth Sullivan. He takes over a program that finished the 2005 season 25-16, including a school record 15-3 mark in Centennial Conference play, as the Diplomats won the Centennial Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Regional Tournament for only the second time in school history. The third championship team in school history, the Diplomats finished the season ranked seventh in the final ABCA Mid-Atlantic Region poll.
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