One month after dismissing Joe Litterio following six seasons at the helm of his alma mater, Rutgers athletics director Pat Hobbs has hired Steve Owens as the head coach of the baseball program, a person familiar with the hiring told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday.

Fresh off his ninth season as the head coach at Bryant University in Rhode Island, Owens will be the 13th skipper in Rutgers’ 149-year baseball history.

Rutgers is expected to announced the decision later Tuesday. A person familiar with the decision told NJ Advance Media that Owens was offered the job over the weekend and he came to terms on a contract with Rutgers late Monday night.

A native of Sauquoit, N.Y., and a graduate of St. Lawrence in upstate New York, Owens, 54, compiled a 327-184-2 (.631) record at the Northeast Conference program.

In a 28-year career that included successful stints at Division III Cortland State and La Moyne, Owens holds a 914-483-3 (.654) record. That win total ranks him among the top 30 active head coaches in victories. His ledger includes 28 straight winning campaigns, a 71-48 (.600) career postseason mark, eight straight NEC regular-season titles and six NCAA Division I Tournament appearances.

A five-time NEC Coach of the Year, Owens’ Bryant teams won 30 or more games in seven of his nine seasons and won 40-plus games four times. He produced 64 all-conference players, 13 All-Americans and 18 players who were picked in the MLB Draft since taking over the program in 2011.

Owens is coming off a 2019 campaign that included a 40-20 record and an NEC regular-season crown. The Bulldogs, who missed out on qualifying for the NCAA Tournament after losing 3-2 in the NEC Championship game, set school and conference records for home runs (81), hits (679), RBI (455), runs scored (487) and pitched strikeouts (501). Three Bryant players — Ryan Ward (8th round), Chris Wright (12th round) and Jimmy Titus (22nd round) — were picked in the MLB Draft earlier this month.

Owens’ 34-player Bryant roster in 2019 included five New Jersey high school products: James Cilento (a junior outfielder from Mahwah who slugged 10 home runs, 57 RBI and batted .278 in 2019), Shane Kelly (a sophomore outfielder from West Deptford who had six homers, 19 RBI and batted .244), Jack Ipsen (a junior right-handed pitcher from Red Bank Catholic), Jack Halbruner (a freshman left-handed pitcher from St. Augustine Prep) and Tyler Panno (a senior infielder/outfielder from Don Bosco Prep who batted .227 with two homers and 17 RBI).

His incoming recruiting class includes one New Jersey prospect: Tommy DiTullio, an infielder from Christian Brothers Academy who earned second-team selection by the Shore Baseball Coaches Association this past spring.

Owens has two sons currently on the Bryant baseball team. Sam Owens, a rising junior infielder/catcher, batted .326 with six home runs and 37 RBI while redshirt senior Jack Owens compiled a 4-2 record with a 3.00 ERA in 18 innings of relief in 2019. He also has a daughter, Jane, who was a freshman infielder/outfielder on the Bryant softball team in 2019.

Prior to taking over a Bryant baseball program that won the 2010 NEC regular-season championship in just its second year at the Division I level, Owens posted a 342-217 record in 11 seasons at Le Moyne in central New York. Owens also compiled a 245-82-1 record at Cortland State over an eight-year run that included seven NCAA Division III Tournament berths and four appearances in the College World Series.

According to persons familiar with the coaching search, Hobbs dwindled the candidate pool down to four finalists: Owens, Phil Cundari (who was handling the interim head coaching duty after serving as Rutgers’ pitching coach the past two seasons), Kean University coach Neil Ioviero and Fordham coach Kevin Leighton last week. All four met with Hobbs and members of a Rutgers selection committee on campus during the coaching search.

In addition, former Rutgers standout/current Boston Red Sox Minor League outfield/base running coordinator Darren Fenster, Army head coach Jim Foster, Auburn assistant Karl Nonemaker and Virginia assistant Kevin McMullan were among a handful of early-round candidates who also interviewed, according to persons familiar with the search. D1Baseball.com reported former Notre Dame coach Mik Aoki interviewed as well.

Rutgers has had a vacancy since May 28, when Litterio’s contract wasn’t renewed following a 20-31 season.

Buy Rutgers tickets: StubHub, SeatGeek, Ticketmaster

Owens will inherit a program that is still seeking its first Big Ten Tournament berth after Litterio’s squads failed to qualify in their first five years in the conference.

The Scarlet Knights haven’t reached an NCAA Tournament since 2007, but Litterio left the cupboard full as the lineup is expected to include seven players who have filled starting roles the past two years and its pitching staff will return all three of its weekend starters.

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. James Kratch may be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.