California baseball head coach Mike Neu announced Monday that Anthony Gilich (gill-ICH) has agreed to become an assistant coach with the Golden Bears. Gilich spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at Washington (2025) and Arizona State (2024) after a successful 16-year run at Central Arizona College (2008-23), where he captured a pair of NJCAA national titles (2019, '22) over his final nine seasons as the program's head coach after being elevated to the role in 2015.

At Cal, Gilich will coach third base, as well as work the team's infielders and assist with the offense, catchers and recruiting.

"We are thrilled to add Anthony to our coaching staff," Neu said. "Anthony has a strong resume with a long history of coaching winning baseball and developing players who get the most out of their ability and move on to the professional ranks. He will be a tremendous asset to our program and the individual players in it."

"I couldn't be more excited to be joining the Cal baseball family," Gilich said. "I look forward to working with coach Neu and the rest of the staff. This is a tremendous opportunity for me and my family to be part of such a great program."

At Washington, Gilich was responsible for leading the team's defensive efforts in his role as defensive coordinator, with the Huskies allowing the league's second-fewest runs in Big Ten conference games and third-fewest overall, while finishing fifth overall in the conference and 30th nationally with a .977 fielding percentage. Gilich spent his first season as a coach at the Division I level at Arizona State in 2024, when he was on the same baseball staff as current Cal hitting coach Brett Wallace.

The 2024 Arizona State squad led the Pac-12 in several key offensive categories including batting average (.313), at bats (2,080), runs (482), hits (652) and doubles (143). The Sun Devils also ranked second in the league in home runs (102), RBI (450), bases on balls (273), on base percentage (.403), slugging percentage (.541) and offensive strikeout percentage (17.54%). Nationally, ASU was 12th, 14th and 15th in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, respectively. The Sun Devils' 2024 offensive numbers in Gillich's lone season on the staff were marked improvements from a 2023 squad that ranked no better than fourth in the Pac-12 in any offensive category. Gilich helped develop five Sun Devils who earned 2024 All-Pac-12 honors including the conference's freshman of the year in DH/LHP Brandon Compton, who hit .354 while pacing all Pac-12 freshmen with 14 home runs and 51 RBI. Others to join Compton on the All-Pac-12 teams were Buster Posey Award finalist C Ryan Campos (.364, 11 HR, 56 RBI), OF Nick McLain (.342, 12 HR, 54 RBI), 1B Jacob Tobias (.322, 18 HR, 58 RBI) and All-American OF Kien Vu (.413, 14 HR, 56 RBI). Four of the five players have been selected in the first 10 rounds of the MLB Draft over the past two seasons with McLain (Chicago White Sox, 3rd round) and Campos (St. Louis Cardinals, 4th round) taken in 2024 followed by the 2025 selections of Compton (Florida, 2nd round) and Vu (Cincinnati, 9th round).

Gilich spent the previous 16 seasons prior to his 2024 arrival at Arizona State as the head coach (2015-23) and associate head coach (2008-14) at Central Arizona College. In his nine seasons at the helm, Gilich posted a 395-132 record with his .749 winning percentage the best in program history. He coached the Vaqueros to national championships in 2019 and 2022 with marks of 50-20 and 59-13, respectively, with the latter establishing a school-record for victories. His 2021 team started 31-0 and finished with a 51-9 mark for an .850 winning percentage that is also the best in school history. Gilich coached five players at the two-year junior college who would go on to play Major League Baseball, while the program produced 94 MLB Draft picks and 225 commits to four-year schools during his tenure.

Gilich was named the ABCA's Junior College Coach of the Year twice at Central Arizona College after the program's national championships in 2019 and 2022. He was also a four-time ACCAC (2016, '21, '22, '23) and three-time Western District (2016, '21, '22) Coach of the Year, while he coached a pair of national players/pitchers of the year, eight ACCAC Players of the Year and six NJCAARawlings National Gold Glove Award winners. Gilich was also responsible for leading several capital fundraising projects, including the construction of a new baseball stadium along with state-of-the-art batting cages and bullpens.

He also spent three years as a scout for USA Baseball (2015-17) during his time at Central Arizona College.

Gilich's first position in college baseball was a four-year stint as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Puget Sound (2004-07).

As a player, Gilich earned first-team all-state honors as a shortstop while leading Gig Harbor High School to a state title in Washington as a 1997 junior. He finished his playing career at Tacoma Community College (1999) and Santa Barbara City College (2000) before graduating cum laude from Central Washington with a bachelor's degree in speech communications and a minor in sociology in 2003.

Gilich and his wife, Alison, are the parents of one son, Grady.
 
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