Eastern Illinois baseball head coach
Jason Anderson has announced the hiring of Forrest Arnold as the Panthers new pitching coach. Arnold comes to EIU after spending the 2022 season as a volunteer assistant coach at Middle Tennessee.
Arnold assisted with pitchers and baseball operations for the Blue Raiders program as they won 29 games last season including posting a 17-13 record in Conference USA.
"We are very excited to welcome Forrest Arnold to our team. He has been at a number of places around the country as a coach and has done some great things," said Anderson. "We are always on the lookout for genuine, talented people to bring into our program and Forrest is another great example of that. Our pitchers will be in great hands as we continue to move the program in a positive direction."
Arnold worked as the pitching coach at Savannah State in 2021 helping the Tigers program post a 14-7 record in an abbreviated season as they advanced to the Black College World Series. Prior to that season at the NCAA Division II ranks he worked two years as the pitching coach at South Carolina Union as the program launched as a Junior College program in 2018.
Arnold has experience in the head coach role working the summer of 2019 in the Beach Collegiate Baseball League. Arnold's team won the Myrtle Beach, SC, based league title and he was named the BCBL Coach of the Year in 2019.
A former collegiate pitcher at Coker University, Arnold broke into the coaching ranks as the pitching coach at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia, SC in 2018. He would serve as the pitching coach with the Carolina Combat Travel Baseball Organization in the summer of 2018 before landing his first college coaching role at South Carolina Union.
Arnold earned his bachelor's degree from Coker in 2017. He had additional summer playing experiences in the Coastal Plains League and The Valley League while a college student-athlete. He also worked internships with the University of South Carolina Athletic Department and the Columbia Fireflies minor league baseball organization.
