DBU Baseball's Dan Fitzgerald has been named the 17th best recruiter in college baseball as announced by D1Baseball.com in their recent release of the nation's top 30 recruiters.  The ranking was based on a questionnaire sent to Division I coaches, asking them to rank the top five best recruiters in college baseball.

Fitzgerald, who enters his fifth season at DBU as the team's Recruiting Coordinator and was named the team's Associate Head Coach in June, has helped the Patriots put together back-to-back nationally ranked recruiting classes, as Collegiate Baseball ranked DBU's 2016 recruiting class No. 27 in the nation, while the 2015 class was tabbed No. 32.  In the previous two recruiting classes, Fitzgerald has been instrumental in signing 13 high school All-Americans, as well as the Louisville Slugger National High School Pitcher of the Year in 2015.

Since Fitzgerald arrived at DBU in 2013, the Patriots have landed 25 players on the Missouri Valley All-Conference Team that were recruited and signed by Fitzgerald.  On the national level, three Patriots have earned All-American honors, including Darick Hall (2016), Colin Poche (2016), and Chance Adams (2015).  Hall was also tabbed the Missouri Valley Conference's Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year in 2016, while Poche was named the league's Pitcher of the Year.  Fitzgerald also signed Jameson Hannah, who was named the Co-Freshman of the Year in the MVC last season.

"Dan is a great recruiter, coach, and an even better person.  I'm glad that other people recognize what we see day in and day out," DBU Head Baseball Coach Dan Heefner said.  "Dan does a great job of finding talented players who are a good fit for DBU and our baseball program.  He is a huge reason for the success we've had in recent years."