WKU baseball pitching coach takes position at Illinois

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU baseball’s assistant and pitching coach Dillion Napolean has been hired by Illinois baseball as the Fighting Illini’s newest assistant coach.

The CUSA Assistant Coach of the Year and his pitching staff put in the work this past season to produce one of the best years on the mound for WKU in program history.

The Hilltoppers had their first ever 500+ strikeout season, totaling 513 which exceeded the previous record of 490 strikeouts set in 2024, a team that Napolean was also a part of.

Napolean joined the Tops back in the summer of 2022, making the move from Iowa Western with head coach Marc Rardin.

Since then, Napolean’s pitchers have charted the league every season, with four Hilltoppers under his leadership going on to be selected in the MLB Draft in CJ Weins, Jacob Bimbi, Mason Burns and Grant Burleson, while Cam Tullar signed a free agent contract.