Arizona baseball to hire Boston College’s Kevin Vance as pitching coach, per report

Arizona has apparently found the guy to help solves its pitching woes.

D1Baseball.com’s Kendall Rogers is reporting the Wildcats will hire Boston College assistant Kevin Vance as pitching coach, replacing Dave Lawn, who was let go Monday after eight years with the program.

Vance, 32, is a San Diego native who spent the past two seasons as BC’s pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. Before that he coached five seasons at Rhode Island.

Boston College made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017 earlier this month, losing in the Tuscaloosa Regional, and finished the season with a 37-20 record that tied the most wins in program history. The Eagles’ team ERA was 5.46, ranking 101^st nationally, compared to Arizona’s 5.97 (157^th), and their strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.54) was 26^th in Division I.

Vance and UA coach Chip Hale likely crossed paths during the tail end of Vance’s professional career. A 19th-round pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2011 out of UConn, the right-handed relief pitcher was in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ minor league system in 2015 when Hale was in his first season as the Dbacks’ manager.