Washington has found its new baseball coach at last. The Huskies announced today that they have hired Lindsay Meggs away from Indiana State after a monthlong coaching search.

As first reported by the (Terre-Haute, Ind.) Tribune-Star, Meggs was offered the job Thursday, accepted it Friday and informed his players Saturday. Meggs led the Sycamores to a 77-79 record in three seasons at the helm after inheriting a team that finished last in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2006. They went 33-21 this spring to finish in second place in the Valley, and Meggs earned MVC coach of the year honors. It was a 15-win turnaround from 2008 for ISU.

"We’re very proud and happy to have Coach Meggs taking over our baseball program," Washington athletics director Scott Woodward said at a press conference today. "His record as a builder of programs, both on the field and in the classroom, is superb. He comes highly recommended by some big names in the college coaching world and we’re thrilled to have him."

Meggs said in May that he had a four-year plan when he was hired to get Indiana State into the top four teams in the conference, but his Sycamores were considerably ahead of schedule this spring, though they lost out on a chance to reach regionals by losing their final six games. Meggs also played a major role in getting the Sycamore Field stadium project off the ground; the Tribune-Star reported that Meggs "was active in preliminary plans for the project long before it was publicly announced."

Meggs first built his reputation at Chico (Calif.) State, where he coached from 1994-2006, winning two Division II national titles along the way. He has a solid reputation as an up-and-coming coach in Division I baseball, but this was an under-the-radar hire for Washington.

Earlier this month, the Huskies offered the job to Virginia Tech’s Pete Hughes and San Diego’s Rich Hill, each of whom turned it down. San Francisco’s Nino Giarratano and Hawaii’s Mike Trapasso were each considered strong candidates, and Oklahoma State assistant Billy Jones emerged as a finalist last week, according to one source.