Auburn University at Montgomery Athletics

After spending two seasons as the head baseball coach at Southern Polytechnic State University, former longtime Auburn Montgomery assistant coach Marty Lovrich was announced as the new head coach at Auburn University at Montgomery in July of 2014.
    
Lovrich became just the second head coach in the program’s history when he took over for a retiring Q.V. Lowe, with whom he spent 22 years with as an assistant coach.
 
In eight seasons running the baseball program, Lovrich has led the Warhawks to a 216-166  record, guiding the program to one Southern States Athletic Conference regular season and conference tournament championships on top of back-to-back invites to the NAIA National Tournament.
 
He has developed five All-SSAC honorees, two SSAC Champions of Character, , one All-GSC honoree, one SSAC Golden Glove and one SSAC All-Freshman recipient with 11 student-athletes earning SSAC All-Academic team distinction. On a national-level, four Warhawks earned NAIA Scholar-Athlete accolades with one NAIA Honorable Mention All-American.  

The Warhawks tallied their most wins as members of division II in 2022, finishing with a record of 30-21 overall and 18-12 in GSC play. Lovrich logged his 300th career victory as a head coach on Friday, April 29 in the Warhawks' 12-3 win against Shorter. Earlier in the season, Lovrich picked up his 200th win at the helm of the AUM Baseball program with a 9-3 triumph over Mississippi College on Sunday, March 13. AUM was just one of two teams in the GSC that ranked top five in team batting average, team ERA, and team fielding percentage. AUM's team batting average of .299 ranked fourth-best, in addition to their 5.21 team ERA and .970 fielding percentage.  Zach Feaster, Brody Syer, and Luke Turner all were named to the All-GSC Second Team. Jackson Ceman and Feaster both garnered CoSIDA Academic All-District honors while Zach Dew was named to the D2CCA All-South Region Second Team. Syer led the Warhawks on offense with a .339 average and ranked fourth in the GSC with 55 runs batted in. On the mound, Turner ranked sixth among qualified starting pitchers with a 3.62 ERA while Andrew Cronan finished in the top five among conference pitchers with eight victories. The Warhawks additionally led all of the conference with 50 double plays turned. 

In their first full season as members of the Gulf South Conference the Warhawks amassed a GSC record of 16-20 and an overall record of 18-23, earning them a spot in the GSC postseason tournament. Sophomore starting pitcher Hunter Viets was named to the All-GSC Second Team, marking for the program’s first individual to take home an all-conference accolade from the GSC. Viets led AUM and ranked in the top 10 in the conference in earned run average (3.35), innings pitched (83.1) and batters struck out (78). Senior infielder Casey Henderson led AUM and also ranked in the top 10 in the GSC in batting average (.381), base hits (64), and runs batted in (40). Henderson recorded an astronomical batting average of .530 with runners in scoring position and .489 with runners on base in 2021. Henderson additionally tied the AUM single-game record with six base hits in a 23-9 victory over Montevallo on April 25. 

In a season shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Warhawks posted a record of 8-12 in 2020. The Orange and black tallied a mark of 6-6 in GSC play, claiming two of four weekend series. AUM won four straight games from Feb. 9-16, highlighted by a series sweep of Christian Brothers on Feb. 15-16 to open up conference play. The Warhawks took the final two games of a three-game GSC set at Montevallo on Feb. 29 and picked up a 10-6 win over Talladega College on March 9, in what would be the final game of the season.  AUM batted .286 as a team in 20 games, good enough for fourth-best in the GSC. 

In 2019, the Warhawks posted a record of 27-22 overall, and a mark of 14-15 in GSC play. AUM won seven of their final nine contests to close out the year, including a doubleheader sweep over Lee at home to close out the season on April 27. The Orange and Black batted .283 as a team, while also ranking among the top five teams in the Gulf South in both total hits and runs scored. 

The Warhawks finished 20-30 in 2018, just their third losing season in program history. The Orange and Black picked up Gulf South Conference series victories over Christian Brothers, Valdosta State and West Alabama. Nathan Langley posted the highest batting average by a Warhawk since the 2016 season, with a mark of .383, while also leading the team in hits, doubles,  runs driven in, runs scored and complete games tossed on the mound.

During the 2017 campaign, the first year of the NCAA transition, the Warhawks posted a 27-23 record with victories over future Gulf South Conference members North Alabama, Montevallo, West Alabama and Alabama-Huntsville. The Warhawks won their first NCAA Division II contest on Feb. 3 against Spring Hill College, prevailing 5-4 in the season opener.
 
In 2016, Lovrich's second season at the helm of the Warhawk baseball program, he was selected as ABCA/Diamond Regional Coach of the Year after he guided the Warhawks to a 46-17 record and the program's fourth NAIA World Series appearance.  Closer Jed Carter became the highest drafted Warhawk of all-time when he went to the Chicago Cubs in the 15th round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft.
    
Lovrich made an immediate impact with the program, helping the Warhawks to a 40-18 record, the Southern States Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships, as well as the top seed in the Daytona Beach bracket of the NAIA Opening Round Championship.  
    
Lovrich was selected the SSAC Coach of the Year following the regular season and was named the 2015 Alabama Baseball Coaches Association’s Small College Division Coach of the Year at the end of the year. During the 2015 season, four Warhawks earned All-SSAC accolades, while Seth Arroyo earned All-Freshman team honors. Matt Miller earned Gold Glove honors at first base, while five players were named to the All-Academic team. Of those five, Bryan Young and Shelby Nobles were named NAIA Scholar-Athletes. Additionally, Rock Rucker became the 10th member of the Warhawks’ baseball program to be drafted by a MLB team, when he was selected in the 20th round of the First-Year Player Draft by the Cincinnati Reds.
    
In his two seasons with the Hornets, Lovrich compiled an 85-37 mark, including a 37-22 record in SSAC play. He coached a pair of SSAC All-Conference performers, two SSAC Gold Glove winners and three members of the conference All-Academic team. He also helped Miller to 2014 Newcomer of the Year honors in the conference and had one player drafted in the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft.
    
In 2014, Lovrich helped SPSU to a 46-19 record and secured an automatic berth to the NAIA National Tournament by winning the SSAC Tournament. The Hornets advanced to the NAIA World Series by claiming the championship of the NAIA National Championship Opening Round site in Daytona Beach, Fla., with an 8-0 win over host Embry-Riddle. The World Series appearance was the third in the program’s history. Southern Poly finished the season ranked eighth nationally. Following the season, Lovrich was selected the American Baseball Coaches Association’s NAIA Southeast Regional Coach of the Year.
    
In his first season, Lovrich led the team to a 39-18 and was named the NAIA College Baseball Coach of the Year by the Georgia Dugout Club.
    
Prior to joining the staff at SPSU in June of 2012, Lovrich spent 22 seasons on the coaching staff at AUM. He was also a catcher for the team in 1989, where he hit .342 and helped AUM to its first winning season in the program’s history. The following year, Lovrich joined the coaching staff as a graduate assistant coach, before being hired as an assistant coach in 1993. His last title was as the associate head coach.
    
During his tenure as an assistant coach at AUM, Lovrich helped the Warhawks to the NAIA World Series three times and coached 34 All-Americans, 76 all-conference honorees, 40 all-region selections and 25 players that went on to play professionally. He was also selected the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year among the state’s four-year institutions in 2008. With Lovrich on its coaching staff, AUM has won nearly 63 percent of its games.    
    
Lovrich received his bachelor’s degree in physical education from AUM in 1990 and completed work on a master’s degree in education in 1995. Lovrich is married to the former Holli Wells.  They are the proud parents of three children, Camden, Cate and Allie Grace.

MARTY LOVRICH YEAR-BY-YEAR
Season            School             W-L     Pct
2013            Southern Poly    39-18   .684
2014            Southern Poly    46-19   .707
2015                   AUM            40-18   .690
2016                   AUM            46-17   .730
2017                   AUM            27-23   .540
2018                   AUM            20-30   .400
2019                   AUM            27-22   .551
2020                   AUM             8-12    .400
2021                   AUM            18-23   .439
2022                   AUM            30-21    .588

Career Record 10 Seasons    301-203       .597