Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Bieser receives four-year extension

Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser will have the opportunity to lead the two-time defending Ohio Valley Conference regular season champion Redhawks to more titles in the coming years.

Southeast interim Director of Athletics Brady Barke announced Monday that Bieser, who has led the Redhawks to two regular-season titles in his three years at the helm, has signed a four-year contract extension.

The Redhawks are 99-76 overall and 58-33 in conference play in three years under Bieser, who previously served as an assistant until former coach Mark Hogan retired after the 2012 season.

"I am excited to announce the extension of Steve Bieser's contract," Barke said in a press release. "Steve leads by example and does an outstanding job developing our student-athletes both on and off the field. He has clearly demonstrated his ability to lead our baseball program and I believe he will take the program to new heights. I look forward to the upcoming season and the quest for a third consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Championship."

Bieser, a native of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, is a 1989 graduate of Southeast who went on to play professionally, reaching the major leagues with the New York Mets in 1997. He played with the Pittsburgh Pirates before ending his playing career in 2001 with the Memphis Redbirds, the Class AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. He played a total of 13 seasons professionally.

He has since coach on the high school level, leading Vianney High School to two state championships in his seven seasons as the head coach, and with the Danville Dans of the Prospect League.

He returned to his alma mater 2010, serving as the Redhawks' pitching coach and recruiting coordinator in the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

He wore the tag of interim coach for the first part of the 2013 season but had it removed during the course of a 26-33 campaign. He was named the OVC Coach of the Year in 2014 after leading the Redhawks to the regular-season title. Southeast repeated the feat in 2015, becoming the first OVC team to repeat since Austin Peay in 2003 and 2004. It was also the first repeat in Southeast history.

"I feel that it's a blessing to be able to stay in Cape Girardeau for my family," Bieser said in the release. "I consider Southeast Missouri State home. It's where I went to school and it's the only university I know. I'm very excited that I can continue my coaching career here and give a lot of thanks to Brady Barke and Dr. Vargas for the work they did on making this happen."