Arizona baseball: Wildcats pitching coach Shaun Cole not returning in 2015

Arizona Wildcats pitching coach Shaun Cole will not be returning to the program next season as he has taken a job with USA Baseball according to Baseball America.

Cole will be the new director of the 18U team for USA Baseball. The 18U tournament starts next week.

This year's 18U head coach is Andy Stankiewicz, who also happens to be the head coach at Grand Canyon University. Cole will be replacing Brant Ust, who left USA Baseball to become an assistant athletic director at Notre Dame.

"We are thrilled to add Shaun to the team," Paul Seiler, USA Baseball's executive director/CEO said in a statement on USABaseball.com. "Having someone with his level of experience and success provides the foundation for the 18U National Team to continue to build on the unprecedented success it has experienced in the last three years."

Cole joined the Arizona program in 2009 in an operations role. In 2010, he moved in as the pitching coach, and essentially groomed the 2012 pitching staff that of course went on to win a National Championship. He won the Collegiate Baseball National Pitching Coach of the Year in that 2012 season.

Shaun Cole said he would have accepted the USA Baseball job even if Arizona had a successful 2014 season. "Too good of an opportunity."

— Daniel Berk (@DSBerk) June 13, 2014

No replacement has been named for Cole yet. This has been something that's been on the rumor mill for over a week now, so I would imagine Andy Lopez has at least thought about the direction he'll go with finding a new pitching coach.

Congrats to Coach Cole and good luck to USA Baseball.