Southeast Missouri State University student publication

Baseball adds two to coaching staff

Thursday, October 4, 2018
Southeast welcomes Matthew Passauer to the baseball team, and looks for him to bring success to the team's bullpen.
Photo by Josh Russell

Southeast baseball coach Andy Sawyers announced Monday, Sept. 24, that Matthew Passauer and Matthew Kinney would be joining the coaching staff.

Passauer was hired as both the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for the Redhawks, whereas Kinney will be taking on the role of director of player development.

Matthew Kinney returns to Southeast baseball under an administrative role as director of player development.
Photo by Josh Russell

“[Passauer] has a very good reputation for development,” Sawyers said. Sawyers noted Passauer adheres to an old-school philosophy when it comes to a throwing program for pitchers. “ I just feel like we had probably the best collection of 90 mile-per-hour arms in the league last year. Sometimes our command and ability to command the baseball needed to get better, and so I think that’s kind of his strength and kind of what he’s known for.”

Passauer was previously at Miami University in Ohio, where the Miami RedHawks posted 35 wins and finished second in the Mid-American Conference. Passauer coached four All-MAC players, three of which were drafted in the 2018 Major League Baseball Draft. Two of those draft picks were pitchers.

“He’s a good communicator, he’s very organized, and he has a good plan,” Sawyers said. “I think just in terms of implementation, he’s got it down. He knows how to talk, he’s good at relating to the guys, and he has a plan.”

Before his year at Miami, Passauer spent four years as head coach at East Georgia State College, where he was named the 2017 Georgia Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. Under him, EGSC had 12 All-Conference players, one All-American, one GCAA Player of the Year and one GCAA Defensive Player of the Year. He led EGSC to school records for wins in a season in back-to-back years, as the Bobcats won 28 games in 2016 and 30 games in 2017.

“I think you’ll see pretty much the exact same thing,” Sawyers said. “It’s just a matter of getting [the plan] put in place and getting our guys into it and getting them better.”

Kinney returns to Southeast as the director of player development, which is more of an administrative role than what he was last time on the Redhawks’ staff. He served as SEMO’s volunteer assistant coach and director of operations in 2016, overseeing the outfield defense and pitching staff.

“His emphasis is in the day-to-day operations side of things,” Sawyers said. “He certainly is great at letting me know what he sees as a coach, and those are conversations Matthew and I have every single day. But in terms of him being on the field coaching our players, that’s not his role right now.”

Kinney said during his last time with the Redhawks, he took away a lot of administrative work from the coaches so they could focus on the coaching, and he also joined them on the field. This time around, his role will be solely administrative, making sure the coaching staff can focus on recruiting and coaching.

Kinney was a former college pitcher, playing at both Belmont University and Florida State. With Belmont, he had a 1.80 ERA, 11 earned runs and six saves during his redshirt junior season. He earned Ohio Valley Conference all-conference and all-tournament honors. During his redshirt senior season with Florida State, Kinney limited his opponents to a .188 batting average, and held a 2.49 ERA across 25.1 innings in 27 appearances, finishing with a 3-0 record.

“Matthew spent last year in private business and wanted to come back to baseball,” Sawyers said. “He’s back doing our operations stuff, and so we’re happy to have him and have a guy with good baseball knowledge and acumen in that role.”

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