ECU’s baseball program made it official with the announcement Saturday morning that Jake Agnos will be the new pitching coach for the Pirates.
He takes over for Austin Knight, who was hired earlier this week to be the pitching coach at Tennessee.
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Photo credit: (ECU Sports Information Illustration)
By ECU Sports Information
East Carolina Head Baseball Coach Cliff Godwin announced the hiring of Jake Agnos as the program’s pitching coach on Saturday morning. A former Pirate All-American and professional pitcher, Agnos stays in Greenville after spending the 2026 season as a graduate manager for East Carolina.
Agnos has served as a graduate manager with the ECU baseball program since August of 2025, having an important role in aiding the development of the pitching staff. In his time with the Pirates, he has assisted with developing more than 20 pitchers through individualized throwing programs, pitch design and mechanical adjustments. He also played a key role in bullpen management and in-game pitching decisions.
Among the pitchers Agnos helped develop were First Team All-American Conference selections Ethan Norby and Joseph Webb, as well as All-Freshman Selection Ethan Rose. Agnos also had a hand in multiple Conference Pitchers of the Week, totaling four pitchers on the staff receiving the honor, with three receiving Conference Honorable Mentions.
With his guidance, the ECU pitching staff continued its tradition of excellence while using advanced analytical tools and modern player development strategies.
Prior to returning to East Carolina, Agnos spent five seasons in the New York Yankees organization after being selected in the fourth round (135th overall) of the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft. During his professional career, he developed in one of baseball’s most progressive pitching environments, using technology such as TrackMan and Edgertronic cameras and motion capture systems to optimize performance and improve pitching mechanics.
Agnos also trained extensively at Cressey Sports Performance, where he worked with state-of-the-art strength and conditioning, arm care and throwing programs designed to maximize athletic performance while minimizing injury risk.
One of the most accomplished pitchers in East Carolina history, Agnos starred for the Pirates from 2016-19. He earned 3x All-America honors (Baseball America, Google Cloud/CoSIDA and Collegiate Baseball), was named the 2019 American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and AAC Male Athlete of the Year and College Baseball Foundation Pitcher of the Year Semifinalist for his career-defining season.
A member of the 2018 USA Collegiate National Team, Agnos also represented East Carolina as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was selected to attend the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum.
His senior season remains one of the greatest in program history. Agnos set both the ECU and American Conference single-season strikeout records in 2019 with 145 punchouts while helping lead the Pirates to another NCAA Regional appearance. He finished his collegiate career among the most decorated pitchers to wear Purple and Gold.
Now returning to his alma mater as a pitching coach, Agnos brings a unique blend of collegiate success, professional experience and cutting-edge player-development knowledge to a program that has consistently been among the nation’s premier pitching staffs.
East Carolina is coming off another championship season that included an American Conference title and NCAA Regional appearance, and Agnos will play a key role in preparing the Pirates for the 2027 campaign.