Washington University in St. Louis

Pat Bloom enters his 11th season as head coach of the Bears’ baseball team in 2025-26. He was hired on June 16, 2015 and is the 13th baseball coach in program history.

WashU has been exceptional under Bloom's tutelage, winning three University Athletic Association (UAA) titles and earning five trips to the NCAA Tournament.

In the 2025 season, the Bears went 26-17, earning a trip to the NCAA Tournament and winning the opening-round game against Ohio Norther, 10-9. Four players were named to the All-UAA teams. Senior Brandon Buday, graduate student Noah Reichman and junior Isaac Zhang were named to the first team while Hank Weiss was named to the second team.

Reichman was named Second Team All-Region by both D3baseball.com and ABCA/Rawlings. Buday, Weiss and Zhang each picked up a D3baseball All-Region third team nod and Colter Couillard-Rodak was named to the ABCA Region 8 All-Defensive Team at second base.

In 2024, WashU finished 24-15-1, placing five on the All-UAA teams. First-year Anderson Gomez, senior Clayton Miller, graduate student Evan Minarovic, sophomore Shane Pellegrino and junior Hank Weiss each earned a spot on the second team. Miller went on to earn a spot on the D3baseball.com All-Region 8 team first team and the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region 8 second team.

After finishing 26-14 in the 2023 season, first-year Shane Pellegrino and sophomore Will Henkel picked up a spot on the All-UAA First Team while sophomore Brandon Buday, senior Kyle Coates and junior Clayton Miller were named to the second team. Henkel went on to pick up D3baseball.com and ABCA/Rawlings All-Region third team honors.

In 2022, three Bears earned All-UAA honors: Andrew Haung and Tim Van Kirk were named to the firs team and Jack Miller picked up a spot on the second team.

Bloom and the Bears had a historic season in 2021, earning a trip to the NCAA Division III World Series for the first time in program history. The Bears' record of 34-6 matched a program-best 34 wins for the second time in three seasons. Following the record-breaking season, Bloom was named D3baseball.com Central Region Coach of the Year and ABCA/ATEC Central Region Coach of the Year.

In 2021, Bloom led the Bears to the No. 1 ranking in D3baseball.com/NCBWA's Week Eight rankings (click here for link). In the final 2021 D3baseball.com//NCBWA rankings, WashU was ranked No. 3.

Three players earned All-America honors following the 2021 season. Ryan Loutos earned ABCA/Rawlings and D3baseball.com First Teams honors. Jared Fong was named to the ABCA/Rawlings Second Team and D3baseball.com Third Team. Tim Van Kirk earned a spot on the D3baseball.com Honorable Mention team.

In July 2021, junior Caleb Durbin became the first player since 1999 to be drafted, going in the 14th round to the Atlanta Braves. Ryan Loutos also signed a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals as an undrafted free agent.

The Bears started the 2020 season 7-0 for the first time since 2007 and were ranked No. 1 in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 Poll for the first time in program history on March 3.

WashU hosted the NCAA Regional in 2019 and matched a program-best 34 wins on the season while John Howard and John Brinkman became the first pair of Bears to earn All-America honors in the same season. Additionally, Ryan Loutos was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-America Second Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Bloom has led a staff that was named the 2017 and 2019 UAA Coaching Staff of the Year. WashU earned distinction in 2019 as the Division III statistical champion in earned run average, posting a nation leading 2.05 mark. The Bears secured three NCAA Tournament victories to set a program best total in 2019.

The 2016 Bears set a school record with 399 runs scored while also winning two games in the NCAA tournament for the first time in the program's existence. The team finished with the second most victories, 33, in school history.

Following the graduation of 10 seniors from the 2017 roster, the Bears fielded a much younger core in 2018 and finished with an overall record of 21-14. The Bears placed third in the UAA with a 10-6 record.

Several individual awards were bestowed on the Bears including All-America honors by D3baseball.com and ABCA/Rawlings which were awarded to Ben Browdy (2016), Brad Margolin (2017), Howard (2018, 2019) and Brinkman (2019). Margolin earned ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove honor as a pitcher in 2017 one season after his batterymate Kyle Kozak received the award as a catcher.

In addition, WashU baseball has received four All-Central Region Team honors in each season with Bloom, who was named the Central Region Coach of the Year in 2017. Caleb Durbin was named the Central Region Rookie of the Year by D3baseball.com in 2019.

Bloom arrived on the Danforth campus after spending the past 12 seasons as the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He is the all-time winningest coach in school history, compiling a 393-175 (.692) overall record.  Bloom led the Pointers to four World Series appearances and eight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) conference titles.

He put together an impressive stretch at UW-Stevens Point that included back-to-back Division III World Series appearances in 2006 and 2007 and five straight WIAC Tournament titles from 2005-2009.  Bloom led his team to their best national finish of third place in 2007.

UWSP appeared in the NCAA Division III Top-10 rankings in 10 of the 12 seasons under Bloom, including No. 2 in 2011 and 2014. In 2015, Bloom led UW-Stevens Point to its 10th NCAA Regional in 11 seasons, as the Pointers posted a 33-14 overall record. It was UWSP's ninth 30-win season in the past 11 seasons.  The team also won the WIAC Tournament for the 11th time in the tournament's 18 seasons.

During the 2013 season, Bloom led the Pointers to the most wins in school history with a 41-11 record, and finished fourth in the NCAA Division III World Series. UWSP also took home a fifth-place finish in 2010 in its third finals appearance.

Bloom is a four-time Midwest Region Coach of the Year (2006, 2007, 2010, 2013), and earned Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association College Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2008. In addition he was also awarded WIAC Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2011.

During his tenure at UWSP, Bloom coached 14 All-Americans, seven WIAC Player of the Year winners and five WIAC Pitcher of the Year honorees. In 11 consecutive seasons (2005-15) with UWSP, Bloom coached the WIAC Pitcher or Position Player of the Year. He also mentored five professional players, including Major League Baseball 2x All-Star Jordan Zimmermann and current Brewers (AAA) player JP Feyereisen.

A native of Tomah, Wis., Bloom graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UWSP in 2001, and received a master’s degree in sports studies with concentrations in sport behavior and performance and sport organization from Miami University (Ohio) in 2003.

Bloom and his wife, Paige, reside in St. Louis with their sons Bode and Bennett.

Updated July 2025