Mississippi State’s Ron Polk, the winningest baseball coach in Southeastern Conference history, announced he will resign effective at the end of the current season, MSU Director of Athletics Larry Templeton confirmed.

“It goes without saying that we are most appreciative of the outstanding job Ron Polk has done for Mississippi State baseball,” Templeton said. “His decision does not come as a surprise because we had a conversation about this timeline even before this season started.

“With Ron making his decision public at this time, it will allow our institution to properly put together a process for the selection of our next head baseball coach,” Templeton added.

Polk is in his 29th season as head of the M-State baseball program, his 35th as a collegiate head coach and his 40th in all levels of coaching college baseball. He has won 1,360 games as a college head coach, ranking among the nation’s top 10 all-time winningest coaches, the fifth-most wins among active NCAA Division I baseball coaches. He became the winningest baseball coach in SEC history in 1997.

A native of Boston, Mass., Polk has guided 23 of his previous 34 teams to NCAA regional play, including the last five straight. He has taken eight of those clubs to the College World Series, including six while at State.

Polk was twice honored as the National Coach of the Year (1973 and 1985). He has been elected to the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame (1985), both the state of Mississippi and the Mississippi State University Sports Hall of Fame (1988), and the Georgia Southern University Hall of Fame (1990). He was honored by his peers as the recipient of the ABCA’s Lefty Gomez Award.