Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Famer Steve Rodriguez rejoined the Pepperdine baseball staff in March 2026 as Special Assistant to the Head Coach.
Rodriguez, a member of Pepperdine's 1992 national championship team, returned to Malibu where he served as head coach for the Waves for 12 seasons from 2004-16, after originally joining staff as assistant coach in 2000.
In this advisory role, Rodriguez provides mentorship to the coaching staff and student-athletes while offering strategic guidance based on his decades of experience in coaching college baseball.
Rodriguez earned WCC Coach of the Year honors in 2014 and guided the Waves to back-to-back NCAA Regionals, including an NCAA Super Regional appearance in 2014. Rodriguez led the Waves to their eighth regional under his watch in 2015, making it to the regional final.
Rodriguez compiled a 401-300 (.572) record in Malibu, including a 178-109 (.620) mark in West Coast Conference play. He led the Waves to three consecutive WCC regular-season titles between 2004-06 and again in 2012 and 2014. His teams made NCAA Championships appearances in eight of his 12 seasons: his first five years on the job (2004-08) and again in 2012, 2014 and 2015.*
With 701 games coached in a Pepperdine uniform Rodriguez has coached more games than any other Waves skipper, sitting second on the program's all-time wins list.*
Following his stint as head coach of the Waves, Rodriguez was named head coach at Baylor University prior to the 2016 season. Rodriguez led the Bears to their first-ever Big 12 Tournament title in 2019, as the squad reached three-straight NCAA Regional appearances from 2017-19. He was named Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2017.
Rodriguez joined the staff at Texas in July 2022, where he served as an assistant coach for the Longhorns for two seasons. Texas reached NCAA Regionals in both seasons with Rodriguez on staff, including a Super Regional appearance in 2023.
Rodriguez was also tabbed to serve as an assistant coach with USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team over the summer of 2014.
Prior to being named head coach in 20024, Rodriguez served as a Waves' assistant coach for four seasons, during which Pepperdine compiled an overall record of 145-98 (.597), including an 88-32 (.733) mark in West Coast Conference (WCC) play. The Waves captured the WCC title in 2001 and made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2001 and 2003.
Rodriguez maintained the Waves' high level of play, winning at least 30 games in each of his first six seasons, including 42 in 2006 and 41 in 2005. The Waves won or shared three straight WCC regular-season titles between 2004 and 2006, and went on to win the WCC Champioship Series each time. Each of those three years, the Waves advanced to the NCAA Regional final, and the school hosted an NCAA Regional for the first time ever in 2006.
The team reached new heights in 2014, winning the program's fifth WCC title under Rodriguez, taking the WCC Tournament title to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, and then advancing past the regional round for the first time since 1992. The Waves won the San Luis Obispo Regional with a 3-0 record to advance to their first-ever NCAA Super Regional (since the round was instituted in 1999), eventually falling 2-1 in a three-game series at nationally-seeded TCU. The Waves went 43-18 overall and posted an 18-9 WCC record in 2014, compiling the most wins during Rodriguez's tenure and the seventh most wins in the program's 75 year history.
Rodriguez and the Waves continued to build on that success in 2015, making it to NCAA Regional play once again by winning another WCC Tournament title with a 4-2 win over LMU in the championship game. The Waves won a pair of games in the 2015 regional, eliminating Clemson and Arizona State in the process, before falling to regional-host Cal State Fullerton.
Pepperdine also advanced to NCAA Regional play in 2007, and made it to both the WCC Championship Series and the final of an NCAA Regional in 2008.*
Though the Waves missed out on postseason play for a couple of years following 2008, Rodriguez brought the program back to the top in 2012. Despite being picked to finish fifth in the WCC preseason coaches' poll, the Waves beat San Diego in the final game of the regular season to clinch the title. The Waves then went on to finish second at the NCAA Stanford Regional. Rodriguez was rewarded with WCC Coach of the Year honors for the first time.
Rodriguez was only the third former Pepperdine player (at the time) to assume the head coaching duties for the Waves in the program's history. Gary Marks earned the distinction of being the first former Pepperdine player to pilot the program when he skippered the Waves from 1963-67. Gail Hopkins, who played at Pepperdine from 1962-64, coached Pepperdine during the 1968 season.
Rodriguez, a fifth-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 1992, played professionally for seven seasons with the Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Montreal Expos organizations. Rodriguez reached the majors with both Boston and Detroit in 1995.
A two-time All-American, he was named WCC Player of the Year in 1992 as the Waves posted a 48-11 mark and captured the College World Series title. Rodriguez was named to the All-CWS team and was part of two memorable plays in Omaha: a grand slam that helped defeat Texas in the semifinal round and a late-inning defensive gem in the Waves' 3-2 win over Cal State Fullerton in the championship game.
A product of Valley High School in Las Vegas, Nev., Rodriguez helped Pepperdine post a three-year record of 126-51-5 (.706) from 1990-92, including a 72-26 (.735) mark in league play. The Waves won the league title and advanced to the NCAA Championships in both 1991 and 1992.
A first-team All-WCC selection in 1991 and 1992, Rodriguez made a big splash as a sophomore in 1991 when he batted .419, the third-highest single-season average in school history. His 104 base hits that season set a Pepperdine single-season record that still stands. He still ranks in the top 10 in five different single-season categories.
Rodriguez' career batting average of .367 ranks second on the Waves' all-time list. Despite playing just three seasons of collegiate baseball, Rodriguez is tied for third on the school's all-time career runs scored chart (187) and is fourth in hits (271).
Rodriguez was a member of the Team USA in both 1991 and 1992. He played in the Pan American Games in 1991 and earned "Player of the Series" honors against Mexico and Cuba. He was also named "Player of the Series" against Korea while a member of Team USA in 1992.
In 2001, Rodriguez was named one of the WCC's Top 50 athletes of all time, and was selected to the conference's 40th Anniversary baseball team in 2007.
Following his professional playing career, Rodriguez enrolled in classes at Riverside Community College and Chapman University before returning to Pepperdine, where he received a bachelor's degree in public relations in December of 2001. He earned a master's degree in educational technology from Pepperdine in 2003.
In October 2007, he was honored by the City of Malibu with the Jake Kuredjian Award for his service to the community.
In January 2010, Rodriguez won the Top Chef Award at the Baseball Coaches Cooking Challenge hosted by the ESPN Zone in Anaheim, Calif. He successfully defended his title in 2011.
Rodriguez and his wife, Kimberlee, have a daughter, Julia, and a son, Nolan.
* Due to NCAA sanctions against the University, Pepperdine later vacated all wins and NCAA Championship appearances in baseball between the 2008 and 2011 seasons. Pepperdine's adjusted overall NCAA records for each season are 0-19 (2008), 0-23 (2009), 0-30 (2010) and 0-34 (2011). Steve Rodriguez' official Pepperdine coaching record is 184-227 (.448).
