Jordon Banfield enters his first season as the Head Coach at Cal State Bakersfield in Fall of 2024. He was named the fourth Head Coach in the history of the Roadrunner baseball program on July 22, 2024.
Banfield came to Bakersfield with an impressive resume that includes nearly 20 years of coaching and recruiting experience in baseball. Most recently, he spent the last four seasons (2021-2024) as the Head Coach at Oakland University.
Taking over the Golden Grizzlies’ program in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Banfield set out to develop an Oakland program that had posted a 45-199 record in the four years prior to his arrival. Under Banfield’s leadership, Oakland experienced a 13-win improvement after his first season at the helm. Despite dealing with limiting recruiting restrictions, Banfield produced immediate results and was voted the 2022 Horizon League Coach of the Year in just his second year.
During that 2022 season, the Golden Grizzlies posted their best overall and conference records (31-27, 18-11) in program history, finishing second in the regular-season standings and Runner-Up at the Horizon League Tournament. In 2024, Oakland registered another 30-win season and tallied a combined 5-1 record against Michigan’s other Division I teams, including an 11-7 road win at Michigan State, while ranking Top 15 in the NCAA in triples, stolen bases, on-base percentage, and walks.
Over the final three seasons at OU, Banfield’s squads won 91 games and posted three-consecutive Top 3 finishes in the Horizon League all while breaking several program records, both on the field and in the classroom. Banfield led Oakland to its first winning season in 25 years and its first 30-win season in 27 years. Under Banfield, Oakland also produced multiple All-League honors including Brandon Decker’s Pitcher of the Year nod in 2024. In the community, the OU baseball team won the Athletics Department’s Team Community Service Award three years straight.
Prior to his time at Oakland, Banfield was the Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at the University of Akron for a year and a half. With a small number of scholarships to utilize, he helped recruit an entire roster in a five-month span and the recruiting class was ranked #7 in the nation by The JBB.
Before changing pace for a year to be the Arizona Scouting Director for Prep Baseball Report, Banfield spent two years as the Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator for The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Banfield’s other experience includes two seasons as Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at University of Illinois Springfield, time as an Assistant Coach for USA Baseball during the U18 Trials, and several years of training and coaching elite-level prep athletes as the owner the Great Lakes Baseball Academy and the Head Coach of the Ann Arbor Travelers national travel club. He also spent three years as an Associate Scout for the Texas Rangers, evaluating potential draftees for the Major League club.
