EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Indiana State Head Coach Mitch Hannahs was honored as the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference Dan Callahan Coach of the Year as awarded by the conference office at the MVC's annual baseball specialty awards ceremony on Monday night.
 
Hannahs was voted the MVC Dan Callahan Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season and second time during his tenure at Indiana State. It marked the seventh time an ISU coach has been honored with the annual award as voted on by the league's head coachs, SIDs, and select media members.
 
The Sycamores were voted as the league's preseason favorites in the 2024 MVC Preseason poll prior to the start of the regular season. Indiana State lived up to its billing as ISU finished the regular season with a 39-11 mark, 22-5 in Missouri Valley play to clinch their second consecutive regular season title. It is the first time in program history ISU has claimed back-to-back outright regular season titles.
 
Under Hannahs' guidance, the Sycamores started off the season strong in Florida winning its first seven games of the 2024 season including neutral site victories over UConn, Louisville, Florida Gulf Coast, Michigan State, and Marshall. The run of success continued in the non-conference slate as ISU picked up a key series win at Xavier, as well as posting a 5-2 record overall against the Big Ten Conference with a season sweep over Purdue.
 
Indiana State opened Missouri Valley play in mid-March and continued one of the longest series winning streaks in program history. The Sycamores won all nine conference series for the second consecutive season extending their streak to 19 consecutive conference series wins dating back to 2022 on their way to posting 22 conference wins.
 
It marked just the third time Indiana State has won 20-plus conference games, and just the first time since Wichita State won 20-plus MVC games every season from 1995-2002. Indiana State remains the only team to win 20-plus conference games since Wichita State (20-4) in 2007.
 
The Sycamores have been ranked by every major Division I baseball poll since mid-April climbing as high as No. 20 in D1Baseball, while sitting No. 23 in Baseball America, No. 18 in USA Today, No. 17 in NCBWA, and No. 14 in Perfect Game. Indiana State has also been inside the top-10 in the NCAA RPI Rankings for a majority of the season finishing the regular season at No. 9 overall.
 
The Sycamores featured a whole team approach to the field in the 2024 season with ISU wrapping up the regular season leading the Missouri Valley in conference play in nearly every single major team statistical category including batting average (.314), hits (296), slugging (.588), on-base percentage (.419), fielding percentage (.986), ERA (3.77), strikeouts (288), and opponent batting average (.224). Additionally, Indiana State finished second in runs scored (220), second in home runs (66), and second in RBIs (209).
 
Hannahs becomes just the second Indiana State baseball coach to receive the Coach of the Year award multiple times joining ISU Hall of Fame Coach Bob Warn (1979, 1983, 1984) to achieve the feat.

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