CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois University and Saluki baseball head coach Lance Rhodes have agreed to a contract extension, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tim Leonard announced on Wednesday.
The five-year extension will keep Rhodes in Carbondale through the 2027 season with a base pay of $170,000 per year.
In 2022, Rhodes led the Salukis to their first Missouri Valley Conference title since 1990, and the eighth regular season title in program history. SIU finished the season 44-16 with a 16-5 record in the MVC, marking the third-winningest season ever and the best mark in conference play since the 2003 season when Southern won 17 games.
Rhodes holds a career 96-42 (.696) record, a 31-18 (.633) mark in MVC action and has led the Salukis to 23 wins over top-100 RPI programs in three years.
During his tenure, Rhodes has transformed SIU into an offensive powerhouse. Southern shattered the program record for single-season home runs, hitting 84 home runs in 2021 before breaking the record again in 2022 with 88.
Southern has also improved on the mound under Rhodes, finishing first in the MVC in ERA and second in strikeouts in 2022.
In his first full season at the helm in 2021, Rhodes guided the Salukis to the program’s first 40-win season since 1990. The season included a 14-0 start, the best-ever for the program, and a 19-game winning streak that overlapped the end of the 2020 season and the start of the 2021 season, which was the second-longest winning streak in school history.
SIU will release its 2023 schedule in the coming week.
