Christian Bourne enters his fourth season as an assistant coach with the Highlanders, a position he took over in August 2022 becoming one of the youngest pitching coaches in the country at the Division 1 level.Â
In just his second season, the Highlanders broke the school record for K’s per nine, achieved back to back 400 strikeout seasons for the first time since 2015, and signed the #1 recruiting class in the conference for the first time in school history. In addition, the Highlanders saw their highest draft pick selected since 2017 in right handed pitcher Dylan Howard. Since then, the Highlanders have been on a steady rise back to relevance taking the team from 10 wins in 2023 to 28 in 2025.
Bourne made his way to the New River Valley by way of Georgia Southern where he served as the Director of Baseball Operations and Player Development under head coach Rodney Hennon.
Over the course of a 41-20 season, that resulted in the hosting of a NCAA Regional, Bourne oversaw all aspects of Georgia Southern player development, using technology and innovation to design and research player development models to assist the coaching staff. The Eagles finished with their best season in school history and placed numerous players with postseason awards, including big league pitcher Hayden Harris.
Prior to joining the Eagles, Bourne was with his alma mater of James Madison University as the Director of Pitching development alongside current Radford head coach Alex Guerra. The Dukes finished the 2021 season with three student-athletes earning All-CAA post season honors. Recent 2022 MLB first round draft pick Chase DeLauter (16th overall to the Cleveland Guardians) earned First Team and All-Rookie Team nods while fellow pitcher Liam Grubbs was an All-Second Team selection.
Bourne joined the coaching ranks following a four-year career at James Madison, where he made 55 appearances for the purple and gold.
Following his playing career at JMU, Bourne started his career in Nashville, Tennessee at Mount Juliet High School. Before the COVID-19 pandemic ended their season, Bourne guided an undefeated Mount Juliet staff to a team ERA of just 2.50. He helped coach nine student-athletes that committed or signed to play at the collegiate level and one MLB draft pick.
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