Baseball America has confirmed reports that South Carolina pitching coach Mark Calvi has been hired as the head coach-in-waiting at South Alabama. Calvi will join Steve Kittrell's staff as an assistant until Kittrell retires at the end of the 2011 season.

Calvi has spent the last six seasons at South Carolina, and his staff carried the Gamecocks to their first national championship this spring. He handled South Carolina's pitchers masterfully in 2010, developing one of the nation's best bullpens and shepherding the staff through the losers' bracket in the College World Series. Gamecocks head coach Ray Tanner credited Calvi repeatedly in Omaha for helping him make the right decisions on who to start and how to use the bullpen.

Before coming to South Carolina, Calvi spent 11 years at Florida International, making seven trips to regionals during that span. His FIU staffs finished in the nation's top 10 in ERA five times.

Calvi beat out a deep group of applicants, including former Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico and Chipola (Fla.) JC coach Jeff Johnson. According to The (Columbia, S.C.) State, other candidates included Mike Goff (manager of the Giants' Rookie-level Arizona League team), Virginia pitching coach Karl Kuhn, Southeastern Louisiana head coach Jay Artigues, Florida State assistant Mike Martin Jr. and two current members of the South Alabama staff.