UW-Platteville baseball manager Jamie Sailors has resigned his position to become the pitching coach at Purdue University.
Sailors led UW-Platteville to the first back-to-back .500 seasons or better since 1992-93. The Pioneers were 19-19 in 2006, despite playing all 38 games on the road while the new Kendall Murray Field was under construction. In 2005, the Pioneers were 22-21 and qualified for the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoffs for the first time in school history. Once in the tournament, the Pioneers rallied from five down in the ninth inning to beat UW-Oshkosh 7-6.
"I would like to thank the University of Wisconsin-Platteville campus community for all the support of the Pioneer Baseball Program over the past five years," Sailors said. "My personal thanks to Sports Information Director Paul Erickson, Facility Director Curt Fatzinger, the Athletics Program Assistants and Athletic Director Mark Molesworth. I would not have had this great opportunity at UWP if it was not for Head Football Coach Mike Emendorfer who hired me as his Defensive Coordinator over five years ago; so a special thank you to Mike, his family and the Pioneer Football Program.
"I strongly believe I leave the Pioneer Baseball program in much better shape than when I took over in 2002. We were able to develop pride in the our program and accomplished many feats and many of those were for the first time in program history. I will always remember the players who made it happen, David Reifenberger, Mike Finnegan, EJ Zbikowski, Brandon Ihm, Ross Bennett, Jason Watson, Ryan Slaght, etc.; I could go on and on! Thank you to all the players that contributed to our program; without you the program would have never made the strides it has made. The program is going in the right direction, and with the new playing facility it should only continue to improve.
"Lastly, I would like to thank all of the people in the Platteville community who have helped the Pioneer Baseball program as well as my family. My wife, children and I have developed many great friendships with people in this community and that I will sorely miss.
"It is ALWAYS a Great Day to be a Pioneer!!"
A former 13th-round draft choice of the St. Louis Cardinals, Sailors was the head baseball coach at UW-Platteville for five seasons.
The Indiana native will join a Boilermaker team that was 31-27 overall and 15-17 in the Big Ten this spring.
"We wish Jamie good luck at Purdue and thank him for building the Pioneer program into contender status in the WIAC," Molesworth said.
The Pioneers hope to have an interim coach named by the end of the month, the athletic director said. Construction on the new field on the upper portion of campus is progressing on schedule, he added.