Evansville baseball alum Wes Carroll is in his 16th season as head baseball coach at the University of Evansville, and has ushered in a new era of Evansville baseball.
Carroll is a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Dan Callahan Coach of the Year, earning the award in both 2014 and 2022. He helped the Purple Aces to the 2014 MVC regular-season title, while also capturing UE's second MVC Tournament title in 2024.
Carroll guided Evansville to its first-ever NCAA Regional Championship in 2024, as the Purple Aces were champions of the Greenville (N.C.) Regional. With the Aces program-record run to the NCAA Super Regionals in 2024, Carroll was named the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/ATEC Midwest Regional Coach of the Year in a vote of the ABCA's All-America and Coach of the Year Committee. Carroll is the first UE Head Coach to earn the honor as Evansville had a 39-26 overall record, a season-best under Carroll's tenure and a mark not hit since the 2006 season.
Carroll has been a driving force behind the renovations which have occurred inside the program during his tenure as head coach. In March of 2020, UE officially opened the renovated German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium. Included in the renovations were a full Astroturf field, padded walls throughout the entire stadium with new fence lines down the first- and third-base lines, new dugouts and bullpens, as well as a new LED scoreboard.
Carroll also helped in the renovations of UE’s indoor facility inside of UE’s Armory Building adjacent to GAB Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium, as well as renovations to the team’s locker room. The University also announced in May, 2024 that former Carroll protege and current Major League Baseball pitcher Kyle Freeland and his wife, Ashley, have donated $3 million for the creation of the new Freeland Clubhouse at the University of Evansville. The renovations come as Carroll continues to make his vision a reality for the UE baseball program.
On the field, Evansville has experienced a new level of success under Carroll, while facing some of the best teams in college baseball. Carroll earned MVC Coach of the Year honors in 2022, after guiding Evansville to a second-place league finish and 32-24 overall record, while facing a schedule ranked near the nation’s top 100. UE opened the year with a three-game series at #10 North Carolina State, while also traveling to and sweeping #18 Tulane, and playing series against Big Ten squads Indiana and Northwestern. The Purple Aces also continued their yearly mid-week match-ups with national powers Vanderbilt and Kentucky. And, Carroll would not have it any other way, as he believes that he has built a program that can compete on the national stage.
During his tenure as head coach, Carroll has produced multiple pro prospects, including 2014 Major League Baseball first-round draft pick and current Colorado Rockies starting pitcher and Team USA member Kyle Freeland. Freeland earned MVC Pitcher of the Year and a trio of All-America honors (Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA) at UE in 2014, after going 10-2 with a 1.90 ERA, 128 strikeouts and just 13 walks. Freeland heard his name called eighth overall by Colorado in the 2014 MLB Draft, becoming UE’s highest draft pick since Andy Benes in 1988, who was the overall top pick of the 1988 MLB Draft.
Carroll also helped develop an NCAA batting champion and MVC Joe Carter Player of the Year a year later, as outfielder Kevin Kaczmarski led the country in hitting at .465 on his way to being drafted by the New York Mets in the ninth round. Overall, Carroll has sent 13 men on to affiliated professional baseball in his 15 years as head coach, with four men – Freeland, Kaczmarski, 2012 MVC Defensive Player of the Year Eric Stamets, and 2013 all-MVC pitcher Kyle Lloyd – all making it to the Major League level.
Defensively, the Purple Aces have been one of the Missouri Valley Conference’s best teams during Carroll’s tenure, which should come as no surprise considering he earned all-conference and Freshman All-American honors on the infield during his playing days at both Evansville and in the Minor Leagues. UE led the nation in fielding percentage in 2012 with a .981 mark, and the Purple Aces have ranked in the nation’s top 40 in fielding percentage each of the last three years, while also ranking tenth in the nation in double plays in 2022.
Carroll and Freeland helped UE win the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title, as Carroll once again earned MVC Coach of the Year honors. Entering the 2023 season, Carroll ranks second all-time at UE in career coaching victories with 352, behind only his mentor and UE Hall of Fame head coach Jim Brownlee. He has produced four different All-Americans, a pair of Freshman All-Americans, five all-region players, one Region V Player of the Year (Cody Fick, 2011), two MVC Pitchers of the Year, one MVC Player of the Year, one MVC Freshman of the Year, and countless all-Missouri Valley Conference players during his 15-year tenure.
As a coach, Carroll has led his team with the same enthusiasm and hard-nosed approach which made him one of the top players to wear a Purple Aces’ uniform and play in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Carroll learned the game “the Purple Aces’ way” growing up just minutes from the UE campus in nearby Newburgh, Indiana. He watched his older brother and Major League alum, Jamey Carroll, excel at shortstop for UE, and later got to experience the success the program is capable of first-hand as a four-year starter for the Purple Aces and a member of UE’s 2000 NCAA Tournament team.
Wes Carroll became UE’s first Freshman All-America selection in 1998, thanks to a rookie campaign in which he hit .355 with 18 doubles, two home runs, and 39 runs batted in. Carroll went on to hit .299 or better in each of his four years at UE, and finished his career by setting the school’s all-time career record for doubles (74), while also ranking in the school’s career top 10 in six different categories. He still holds the record for career doubles, has the second-most base hits in school history with 308, and ranks 10th all-time in UE history with a .339 career batting average. Carroll earned all-conference and all-region honors on the UE infield during his four-year career, before being named to the Missouri Valley Conference’s All-Centennial Team in 2007 as one of the top players in league history.
Following his college career at Evansville, Carroll was drafted in the 37th round of the Major League Baseball first-year player draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. Carroll spent the next five years playing Minor League Baseball for the Phillies, and later, for the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals organization. As a part of the now-Nationals organization, Carroll played parts of two seasons at the AAA level. He retired from the professional ranks in the spring of 2006, but not before he was able to play alongside his older brother, Jamey, in two spring training games for the Washington Nationals.
Carroll then returned to his alma mater in the summer of 2006 as an assistant coach with the Purple Aces’ program. Carroll’s main responsibilities as an assistant coach included serving as the team’s hitting coach and infield coach. Carroll helped the 2007 Purple Aces attain their third-highest team batting average (.292) since the NCAA implemented reforms on bats in 2000.
Carroll was named the 12th head coach in UE baseball history on July 2, 2008.
“Wes has a strong history in our community, has been successful as a player, and knows the University of Evansville as both a graduate and as a coach,” said UE Director of Athletics John Stanley. “Wes’ passion for the baseball program, the game of baseball, the University, and the community make him an ideal choice to lead our program.”
Carroll graduated from UE in 2001 with a degree in Human Kinetics and Sport Studies. Wes and his wife, Ashley, a former soccer standout at the University of Evansville, reside in Evansville and have one son and one daughter.
