At Blackburn, athletic positions seem to come and go very liberally at the liberal arts college. One new coach however, has some goals in mind. Pitching Coach Sean Liedtky came to Blackburn in September of 2015 straight after graduating from Manchester University. “We sat down and set some goals we want to get the rest of the year,” Liedtky said. “We created not only season goals, but individual game goals.” The baseball team plays both seven inning and nine-inning games, so the Liedtky set the goals accordingly to fit the differences. “We set some staff season goals we wanted to start hitting as the season progressed because the first quarter of our season did not go how we wanted to.” Liedtky added, “This will be a good way to get us going in the right direction in terms of what we are trying to do on the mound.”
Senior criminal justice major and right-handed pitcher Tyler Gosnell said, “Coach Liedtky is doing a great job running the pitching staff this year. Liedtky knows the game of baseball very well and knows our staff well which in return gives us an edge out on the field.”
Sophomore criminal justice major and right-handed pitcher Tyler Morgan, also noted “We had a pitching coach last year as well, but their coaching differs.” Morgan noted that it is nice to have experience both coaches, as he benefitted from both coaching minds of former Pitching Coach Daniel Sharp and current Pitching Coach Liedtky.
“We keep track of runs, walks, percentage of first pitch strikes, how many leadoff batters reach base, how many pitches we throw in a game and how many times we give up a hit when we were even or ahead in the count and the ball was put in play,” Coach Liedtky elaborated. “Those are the kind of things we track in the game, and if we hit these goals we should be pretty successful.”