Pete Maki is in his sixth season as the Lions' top assistant coach and was promoted to associate head coach during the summer of 2012. Maki serves as Columbia's pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.

In each of the past three seasons, Columbia's pitching staff has ranked among the top two Ivy League teams in earned run average. During Ivy League play in 2012, Columbia's pitching staff led the league in earned run average, opposing batting average, strikeouts and hits allowed.

Senior right-hander Pat Lowery was named first team All-Ivy League and Stefan Olson gained honorable mention All-Ivy honors for the second straight year. After the 2012 season, Lowery was selected in the 21st round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The two All-Ivy League pitchers named in 2012 added to the total of nine All-Ivy League pitchers in Maki's five years as Columbia's pitching coach.

In 2011, Maki helped guide sophomores Tim Giel (second team) and Stefan Olson (honorable mention) to All-Ivy League accolades.

In 2010, Columbia's pitchers led the Ivy League in team earned run average for the first time in 23 seasons, when the 1987 staff led the nation with a 2.12 staff ERA. The Columbia staff also set a school record for strikeouts in a season with 293.

During that 2010 campaign, sophomore Pat Lowery posted a 5-3 record with a 3.46 ERA and held opponents to a .224 batting average on his way to Ivy League Pitcher of the Year honors. Junior Dan Bracey was a two-time Ivy League Pitcher of the Week and finished the regular season tied for the league lead in strikeouts. As a staff in 2010, Columbia's pitchers had better than a 2.5:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, one of the best in the country.

Maki reunited with his former head coach Brett Boretti when he joined the Columbia coaching staff in February 2008. A 2004 graduate of Franklin & Marshall, Maki was a left-handed pitcher under Boretti's tutelage at F&M.

“First and foremost, Pete is an excellent teacher,” notes Boretti. “I like his style of communication, and he has been a great fit for our program and the young men with whom we work.”

Maki previously served as an assistant coach at the University of New Haven from 2006-07. Maki oversaw the pitching staff that led the East Coast Conference in earned run average and strikeout/walk ratio in both 2006 and 2007. In those two seasons, three of his pitchers went on to play professionally.

“I feel he learned a lot from [head coach] Raphael Cerrato at New Haven, who is one of the best young coaches out there,” Boretti says. “That helped him make the transition to Columbia.”

Maki graduated from Franklin & Marshall with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology. During his senior season, he earned six saves as a closer, and posted a team-best 3.42 ERA. He was named the team’s “Cy Young” award winner.

“Pete was a very smart player who overcame a lot of adversity (injuries) to make himself into an excellent pitcher,” Boretti adds. “He pitched at the highest levels of college baseball, including the Cape Cod League.”

Maki, who hails from Woodbury, Conn., graduated second in his class at Nonnewaug High School, and was an all-state academic choice in his senior year.  He and his wife, Elisabeth, live in Manhattan, close to the Columbia campus.