MALIBU, Calif. - Pepperdine Baseball Head Coach Rick Hirtensteiner finalized his coaching staff this week with the hiring of pitching coach Rolando Garza. Garza comes to Malibu after serving as the pitching coach at Riverside City College and in the Los Angeles Angels minor league system.

Garza replaces Jon Strauss, who resigned from his position to join former Pepperdine Head Coach Steve Rodriguez at Baylor.

"I am excited to welcome Rolando to the Pepperdine family," said Hirtensteiner. "Rolando has a wealth of experience and success. He has a great passion for coaching and has shown the ability to create relationships with his pitchers which leads to their development not only as student athletes and baseball players, but builds character and discipline, molding them into men."

Garza started his coaching career at Riverside City College under coaching legend Dennis Rogers, who has developed head coaches such as Kentucky's Gary Henderson, Baylor's Rodriguez, UC Santa Barbara's Andrew Checketts, Brian Green of New Mexico State, Randy Bennet at Cal Poly Pomona, and Gary Adcock of Cal Baptist.

A Southern California native, Garza hails from the Coachella Valley, where he was a ninth round draft pick by the Chicago White Sox out of Coachella Valley High School. He was originally drafted as a shortstop and positional played, and transitioned to a pitcher the second half of his 10-year minor league career between three organizations.

Following his playing days, Garza spent two years coaching in both the Tampa Bay Rays organization and most recently as a pitching coach with the Los Angeles Angels minor league affiliate, the AZL Angels, this summer. This past June, Garza assisted with a pitching staff that helped clinch a playoff berth and lead the entire Angels organization with a 66.4 strike percentage for the month before his departure.

Very familiar with the collegiate game, Garza spent three seasons as the recruiting coordinator at Riverside City College, bringing in dynamic players to help the RCC program reach regional and super regional play two of the last three years. In addition, Garza assisted in bringing in three consecutive pre-season Top 25 national recruiting classes (as ranked by Perfect Game) and between 2013-2015 Garza's recruiting classes produced 15 NCAA Division I commits.

During Garza's three-year stay as pitching coach at RCC, he collaborated with Korean strength coach/skill developer Youngjin Yoon to develop and produce 10 MLB draft picks/free agent pitching signees. In 2013, under Garza's tutelage the RCC Tigers' pitching developmental program produced the most pitching draft picks in California at the Division I, II, III and NAIA levels, with five pitchers selected. Moreover, the pitching staff was second in the state of California with an ERA of 2.08.

Garza has also served as a special pitching instructor with the Korea Baseball Organization major league team the Lotte Giants. After making two trips to Korea to survey the baseball infrastructure and pitching development, Garza collaborated with Yoon to work on a holistic hybrid pitching philosophy that merges the American power pitching culture, with Southeast Asian baseball developmental strategies.

"First and foremost, I would like to extend my gratitude to the University of Pepperdine, Director of Athletics Dr. Steve Potts, and head coach Rick Hirtensteiner for this great opportunity," said Garza. "It is a great Honor to be a part of a program with such a great history and a winning culture on and off the baseball field. Pepperdine has a high standard of personal beliefs, academics, and athletic excellence, which makes it such a wonderful environment for student-athletes from across the nation."

Garza earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Cal State San Bernardino, graduating in 2010 with honors. He currently resides in Redlands, Calif. His mother and father, Joe and Linda Garza, are retired and reside in Coachella, Calif. Garza has two siblings, Jose and Raymond, as well as a nephew, Jose Garza III.