MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Mulerider Baseball Head Coach Justin Pettigrew has announced the hiring of Jacob Caples to the role of assistant coach for the upcoming 2021-22 athletic year. Caples fills a void left by former assistant coach Brandon Stover who left following the 2021 season to pursue a head coaching opportunity at his high school alma mater.
 
Caples spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach for Little Rock working with the catchers, serving as an on-field base coach during games, and handling all operational responsibilities within the program. In his time at Little Rock, he saw Kale Emshoff become one of the nation's top catchers before being signed by the Kansas City Royals as a free agent in the summer of 2020.
 
Caples has also worked as an assistant in the Cape Cod Baseball League. There, he worked with two catchers, Austin Wells (1st round, New York Yankees) and Carson Taylor (4th round, Los Angeles Dodgers) that were drafted in the 2020 MLB First Year Player Draft.
 
Prior to coming to Little Rock, Caples served as an assistant at the University of Arkansas-Monticello where he worked with the offense and catchers. In 2018 at UAM, he helped lead one of the country's best offenses which ranked 8^th nationally in home runs, 8^th nationally in slugging percentage, and 16^th nationally in batting average.
 
In 2016, Caples also coached Corey Wood who won the Josh Willingham Award, given to NCAA Division II's most valuable player. Caples also spent the fall of 2018 as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Tarleton State University before transferring to Little Rock.
 
As a player, Caples spent two years at Western Texas Community College before transferring to West Texas A&M University for his final two years.
 
Caples earned a Bachelor's Degree in Sport and Exercise Science from West Texas A&M and a Masters in Education from Arkansas-Monticello. He is married to Victoria Caples.