Baseball Staff

Bill Walkenbach, Head Baseball Coach

Bill Walkenbach enters his ninth season at the helm of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball program in the 2024-25 academic year, after leading the Stags to a 32-15 record in 2024, its winningest season in program history, and to the NCAA Regional Finals after their first NCAA bid since 1996. CMS also went 18-6 in the SCIAC in 2023, setting a program record for most league wins. 

Over his first seven full seasons at the helm (not counting a COVID-shortened 2020), he has improved the Stags' win total and winning percentage each season, turning the program around from a 7-32 season the year before he took over to a 32-15 record in 2024. The Stags improved to 11 wins in his first season, then to 16, 18, 19, 24, 28, and now 32.

The turnaround is no surprise, as Walkenbach has a history of acheiving unprecedented success at his previous coaching stops. Prior to CMS, he served seven years as the head baseball coach at NCAA Division I Cornell University, where he led the Big Red to its first-ever Ivy League Championship in 2012 and set single season school records with 31 wins overall and going 14-6 in conference play. The team won the Lou Gehrig Division of the Ivy League in 2009 and 2012.  Academically, the Big Red baseball team was recognized for being in the top 10 percent of Division I baseball for all seven years under Walkenbach.

Before his tenure at Cornell, Walkenbach was the head coach of the Division III Franklin & Marshall baseball program in Lancaster, Penn. Under his tutelage, the Diplomats won two regular season Centennial Conference championships in 2006 and 2007 and achieved a 69-42 overall record, the highest percentage during any three-year period in program history. The team finished the 2006 season ranked No. 13 in Division III, the highest ranking for the program to date.

Walkenbach completed his Master of Sports Administration at Georgia State while on staff as an assistant coach at Emory University for the 2002 and 2003 seasons. In 2003, Emory was a Division III World Series participant, finishing the season ranked No. 5 in the nation.

Walkenbach earned his bachelor’s degree at Cornell and was a four-year All-Ivy shortstop selection including earning Rookie of the Year honors in 1995. He appears 17 times in the career record book for Cornell Baseball and was the former home run record holder with 21 during his career. He was inducted into Cornell’s Hall of Fame in 2010.

Quinn Heiner, Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator

Quinn Heiner is entering his fourth season as an assistant coach with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball in 2024-24, adding the title of recruiting coordinator in 2024. He has already been a part of both the winningest season (32-15 in 2024), and the winningest SCIAC season (18-6 in 2023) in programhistory, and helped guide the Stags to the NCAA Regional Finals in 2024, after earning their first bid since 1996.

Prior to joining the CMS staff, Heiner served for two years at Schreiner University, where he was an assistant coach with the varsity and the head coach of the junior varsity team. He worked specifically with the catchers and infielders at Schreiner, while also serving as a hitting instructor.

Heiner also has previous coaching experience as a graduate assistant at Holy Names University in Oakland. He played collegiately at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois as a catcher, and went on after graduation to compete professionally in Germany's Baseball Bundesliga with the Berlin Flamingos, while serving as a player/coach. In addition, he was the co-head coach of the Orange County Waves of the Pacific Coast Collegiate League in 2016, and was the interim varsity head coach at Laguna Hills High School in 2016, before assuming assistant coaching duties in 2017.  

Heiner earned his master's degree in business management with a focus in leadership at Holy Names, where he was awarded Graduate Assistant of the Year in 2020. He also earned his bachelor's degree from Benedictine in exercise and sports studies, while earning Scholar-Athlete distinction from the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. 

David Higeura, Assistant Coach

David Higuera enters his third season as an assistant coach with the CMS baseball team in 2024-25. In his first two seasons, he has helped CMS to the winningest year in program history (32-15 in 2024) and to the winningest SCIAC season in program history (18-6 in 2023). 

Higuera came to CMS after serving for three seasons an assistant coach at Caltech, where he was the program's third-base coach and outfield coach, while also assisting with strength and conditioning and recruiting. 

Prior to Caltech, he worked as an assistant coach and graduate assistant at Georgetown College, his alma mater, where he had similar duties, while also managing expenses and transportation. 

Higuera has also had a career path in the education field, working as a science, history and PE teacher at St. Andrew Catholic School, and serving as the athletic director at Community Charter High School. He was previously a physical education and ELA teacher at Santa Rosa Charter School for one year, and a physical education and technology teacher at St. Timothy Catholic School for one year. 

Higuera earned his BA in communication from Georgetown College in 2015, with a minor in psychology, and went on to earn his master's in education from Georgetown as well. He added a second master's degree in health and wellness from the American College of Education in 2017.