Jan. 18, 2005

Lausanne, Switzerland - LMU Head Coach Frank Cruz has been named 2004 International Coach of the Year by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). The IBAF awarded Cruz with its Mizuno Award for his success as manager of the gold-medal winning USA Baseball National Team this summer.

The IBAF selected Cruz as Coach of the Year from managers from all 112 participating member countries and all team levels. The award is a special honor in a year of Olympic competition, as Cruz was chosen from a pool that included all nations' Olympic baseball coaches. Cruz became just the fourth American coach to receive the selection, and the first since 1995. He is the only Team USA coach to win the award in an Olympic year. The selection was announced at the IBAF's Executive Committee Meeting in Switzerland.

In December, USA Baseball named Cruz its National Development Coach of the Year. In his second overall coaching stint with USA Baseball and first as a head coach, Cruz led the 2004 USA Baseball National Team of collegiate players to the program's first gold medal at the FISU World University Championships in Tainan, Taiwan.

In 20 years of national team competition, USA Baseball has now won five gold medals. In his two stints with the national team, Cruz has played a role in two of those five gold medals. He is now one of just three coaches to be a part of multiple gold-medal-winning squads.

Cruz and Team USA went a perfect 6-0 in round robin pool play and then defeated Chinese Taipei (5-2) and Japan (4-2) to capture the gold medal. The Americans entered the championship with a 10-7 record, but then won eight straight in Taiwan and 12 of their last 14 under Cruz.

The Americans captured the gold with a combined dominating performance at the plate, on the mound, and in the field. Cruz's offense led the eight-team field hitting .307 with six home runs. His pitching staff was nearly untouchable, combining for a 1.19 ERA and striking out 83 batters in 68.0 innings.

His team, the 2004 National Team, was also named USA Baseball Team of the Year. The Americans finished summer 2004 with an overall record of 18-7 and became the first National Team to ever record a no-hitter, as five pitchers combined to pull off the feat in a game against Canada. LMU right-handed junior Stephen Kahn joined Cruz on the award-winning national team this summer.

The summer of 2004 was Cruz's second tour of duty with USA Baseball, but his first as a head coach. Cruz served as an assistant on the 2000 USA Baseball National Team that posted an overall record of 27-3-1 and captured a gold medal at the 2000 Haarlem Baseball Week Championships in The Netherlands. This summer, he became the first USA Baseball National Team Head Coach to be affiliated with the West Coast Conference.

At LMU, Cruz was honored last season as the WCC Coach of the Year by his conference peers, giving him his third career coaching selection. In his eighth year with the Lions, Cruz took the squad that was picked to finish fourth in the WCC in the preseason coaches' poll and guided it to its third division title in six seasons. Cruz coached the Lions to a WCC-best 20-7 conference mark, also program-best against the current conference institutions. With the 7-5 win over UCLA on February 10, Cruz became the second LMU baseball coach to reach the 200-win career milestone.

Today's IBAF awards will be given through the IBAF Ordinary Congress to be held later this year in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Cruz and the Lions open the 2005 season hosting Cal for a three-game series at Page Stadium February 11-13.

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