Nate Gercken began as an assistant coach for Academy of Art baseball in November 2021.
It was a 2023 Academy of Art baseball season that featured career achievements, multiple Pacific West Conference recognitions, the program's second no-hitter, and a celebration of its senior class as the Urban Knights worked hard every day. Three different ART U student-athletes earned
PacWest weekly honors including Brian Kraft who was also named
NCBWA National and
Regional Pitcher of the Week after tossing a no-hitter versus Concordia on
Apr. 1. Cannon
Secrist also made history by becoming the program's
new career strikeouts leader, ending with 202 strikeouts in 201.0 total innings. He would join fellow senior
Hayato Niki on the
All-PacWest Third Team alongside Gabe Henderson on the Second Team at the season's end while Landon Levine secured a place on the
ABCA West Region All-Defensive Team. Additionally, a grand total of 12 Knights were honored on the
Academic All-PacWest Team and three were named
CSC Academic All-District Team.
Back to a full schedule for the first time in nearly two full calendar years, the 2022 ART U campaign saw the Urban Knights earn a trio of victories over ranked opponents in addition to setting numerous records along the way. Following a win hosting No. 23 Concordia on
Feb. 26 that saw Collin
Carriger break the program's single-game strikeouts record (16), Academy of Art defeated its highest ranked opponent to date in No. 3 Point Loma twice on back-to-back days (
Apr. 8 and
Apr. 9). While ART U single-season program records were broken by Charles Morgan (eight home runs) and Cannon
Secrist (82 strikeouts), the trio Dominic
Ruggiero, Vincent
Lontz, and
Carriger collected All-PacWest Team honors. It was a career-best batting average for
Ruggiero at .351 (47-for-134) in 35 games played, which was not only the highest average on ART U and sixth-best in the
PacWest (third-best single-season average in ART U history with a minimum of 100 at-bats).
Carriger tallied another career-best with a total of 86 strikeouts, fifth-most in the
PacWest, while
Lontz ended his ART U career with a career-best .314 (54-for-172) in 49 games played this season.
Ruggiero would even take it a step further, as he was named to the
Division II Conference Commissioners Association All-West Region Second Team for the first time in his career. Additionally, baseball was represented by nine
2021-22 Academic All-PacWest recipients.
The interim head baseball coach for Buckley High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif. during the past season, Gercken was elevated after his stint as the pitching coach which began in 2019. The Griffins went 10-7 across the two years impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to Buckley, Gercken served as the pitching coach for Will C. Wood High School in 2018 and spent two years as the Admirals Baseball Association pitching coordinator before that.
Aside from his coaching experience, Gercken carries a plethora of accomplishments on the mound himself. Most recently with the Sioux City Explorers of the American Association of Professional Baseball from 2019-21, the right-handed pitcher served as a critical piece of the Explorers' bullpen, producing a 2-2 record with a 3.75 earned run average, two saves, and 54 strikeouts in 36.0 innings pitched in 2021.
Gercken delivered an all-star season with the Explorers in 2019 as his 42 appearances were second on the team behind only the league leader. Gercken's ERA was an impressive 1.91 and his 4-2 record came with 44 strikeouts in 47 innings of work. He was named to the mid-season South Division All-Star Team.
A stint with the Perth Heat of the Australian Baseball League came prior to Gercken's time with the Sioux City and he could be found with the New Jersey Jackals of the Frontier League in 2017-18. In June of 2016, Gercken was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 16th round of the
MLB draft and would go on to play multiple seasons with the Elizabethtown Twins of the Appalachian League.
A two-time PacWest Pitcher of the Week in 2014, Gercken's name still sits at or near the top of virtually all ART U pitching records, including the lowest career ERA with a 3.93 (314.0 innings pitched), most career wins (10), and most strikeouts in a career (196). In his last two seasons, Gercken posted a sub-3.00 ERA and crushed the single-season strikeouts record as a senior with 79 punchouts to earn a selection to the
2015 All-PacWest Team.
Gercken earned his bachelor's degree in School of Communications & Media Technologies in 2015.
