FARGO, N.D.--Bowling Green assistant Tod Brown has been named head baseball coach at North Dakota State. That announcement came today from NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor.

"We're extremely excited Tod has accepted this opportunity," Taylor said. "We had outstanding candidates to choose from and Tod rose to the top. We were pleased with the resumes we received, and we were very impressed with those we spoke to personally." Brown, the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for the past eight seasons at Bowling Green, replaces Mitch McLeod, who resigned in May. He will inherit a team that was 16-31 as a Division I independent last year and will begin play in The Summit League next spring.

"We look forward to Tod taking our baseball team and preparing them to be potential Summit League champions," Taylor said.

At Bowling Green, Brown has been a part of two division titles and a regular-season championship in the Mid-American Conference. He has coached two MAC Player of the Year award-winners and eight professional draft picks.

Brown began his collegiate coaching career in 1999 as a volunteer assistant at the University of Arizona. He worked with pitchers and catchers and was the first-base coach for the Wildcats, who qualified for an NCAA regional.

He was head coach of the San Francisco Seals of the California Coastal Collegiate League in the summer of 1999, compiling a 43-29 record and making a fourth-place finish in the National Baseball Congress World Series.

A left-handed pitcher, Brown played collegiate baseball for Hall of Fame coach Jerry Kindall at Arizona, where he was a member of the 1992 Pac-10 championship team. In 1993, Brown won six games and had eight saves while setting Arizona's single-season record with 35 appearances. He was named to the All-Midwest Regional team as the Wildcats fell one run shy of a College World Series appearance.

Brown played professional baseball in 1994 for the Brainerd Bears in Minnesota before signing a free-agent contract with the Cleveland Indians. He was released in spring training after a career-ending injury.

Brown earned a bachelor's degree in regional development from Arizona in 1994 and a post-baccalaureate in education from Chapman University in 1997. He and his wife, Janet, have a 6-year-old son, Brooks, and a 4-year-old daughter, Blake.

The Tod Brown File
Age: 36
Born: June 27, 1971
Hometown: Tucson, Ariz.
Family: Married (Janet) with a 6-year-old son (Brooks) and a 4-year-old daughter (Blake).
Education: Bachelor's degree in regional development, University of Arizona, 1994; post-baccalaureate in education, Chapman University, 1997.