Kevin Ritsche returns to his alma mater where his collegiate baseball career started, with the announcement of his appointment to the head baseball coaching position at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota. Ritche, who grew up in Minnesota, graduated from nearby Superior High School in 2000. As a player for St. Scholastica, he was a catcher and team captain, an NAIA honorable mention All-American and first-team All-UMAC.
Coach Ritsche was hired in 2010 to revive the baseball program at Winston Salem State. In nine seasons, Ritchie turned WSSU into a Top 25 program and a national championship contender ranked nationally each year and guided the Rams to four HBCU Baseball National Championships. Ritsche’s teams won six conference championships and made six NCAA Division II Tournament appearances. In 2017, the team was runner-up in the NCAA Atlantic Regional, just missing a trip to the NCAA Division II World Series. He was a five-time Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Coach of the Year.
In 2017, Ritsche was selected an HBCU Baseball “Young Gun” as one of the best baseball head coaches at Historically Black College and University (HBCU) baseball programs.
Ritsche created the best baseball program in all of HBCU baseball. He guided the Rams to 319 victories in nine seasons, 30 plus wins every season, 35 or more wins in five of the last seven seasons including six Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) championships, six NCAA Division II playoff appearances (2011-2015, 2017) and topped the 40-win mark in 2015 going 42-15. This past season’s record was 35-16 and Winston-Salem State claimed its fourth HBCU Baseball National Title.
Kevin Ritsche, who has a Ph.D., was a Associate Professor of Exercise Physiology at WSSU. He was hired in 2010, but the athletics program cut baseball for financial reason and replaced it with golf for the 2019-2020 school year.
Ritsche will be coaching an NCAA Division III school that has an outstanding baseball tradition.