Marlin Ikenberry, Head Baseball Coach

A season after becoming the first VMI coach in any sport to crack the 200-win barrier, head baseball coach Marlin Ikenberry will enter his ninth year as the Institute's head man.

In 2011, Ikenberry won his 200th career game on March 5 against Bucknell, and closed the season with 221 career victories. That total is the fifth-most in Big South history, and makes him the winningest coach not only in VMI baseball annals, but in the history of the Institute. VMI would go on to post a winning season for the sixth time in seven years, expanding the best run in program history. Two of those wins broke long skids, as VMI defeated William & Mary in Williamsburg for the first time since 1996, and also beat James Madison in Harrisonburg for the first time since the 1976 campaign.

The Keydets also hosted the first postseason baseball games in Institute history, welcoming the 2011 Big South Baseball Championship to Gray-Minor Stadium. Finally, the team beat a ranked opponent (JMU) for the sixth time in the last eight seasons, and won the Big South Sportsmanship Award for the sixth straight year.

Ikenberry became the Institute's head baseball coach on July 22, 2003, after former head coach (and current Yankee minor league manager) Tom Slater departed VMI to accept a coaching position at the University of Florida. Ikenberry, who had been Slater's recruiting coordinator and top assistant for three years prior to the promotion, saw immediate strong results.

After winning 23 games in his first year and 27 contests in his second season, historic ground was broken in 2006, when the Keydets won 30 games for the first time in program history, while also marking the first time in 41 years that the program posted a winning record.  That success continued in 2007, as Ikenberry guided his squad to a 34-21 record, knocking off a pair teams ranked in the top 10 nationally for the first time in program history.  VMI Baseball earned its first-ever national ranking, being tabbed 30th in the country by Collegiate Baseball in back-to-back weeks while also receiving votes in the Writers' Poll.

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