Baseball Coaching Staff Announced

After conducting a nationwide search, Head Baseball Coach Vince Licursi has selected three coaches to help guide the Bobcats in year one for the program. Joining the baseball coaching staff are Zach Block, Jake Plata, and Dennis Szalai. "During the selection process, the main goal was to obtain the highest quality coaches to serve our athletes looking to move on at the highest level athletically. Player development is the #1 focus for the program. We provide our baseball players with a coaching staff with experience from the professional level, DI, DII, NAIA, and D3 levels respectively. Please join me in welcoming the newest additions to the Bobcats family!"  Head Baseball Coach Vince Licursi

Zach Block joins the coaching staff after serving in the player development department for the Washington Nationals. While working for the Nationals, Zach utilized technologies such as Rapsodo, Trackman, Blastmotion, and Edgertronic to track performance and data in the player development process. Prior to Washington, Block also worked in the minor league video departments for the Los Angeles Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, and Cincinnati Reds; utilizing BATS technology to provide data and video for players and coaches to study. Block will implement one of the nation's few BATS systems at the college level for the Bobcats. 

Jake Plata joins the coaching staff after a successful stint serving as assistant coach for Case Western University in 2018-19. For the last four years, Jake has coached for the Force baseball club located throughout Northeast Ohio. Jake played DI NCAA collegiate baseball at the University of Akron as an outfielder and pitcher. In 2009-2010, he won the Joe Thomas Award (Highest Team Batting Average; .371). In 2010, Plata was Gatorade National Player of The Week. Jake held a career OB% of .440.

Dennis Szalai currently serves as Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for Premier Athletics as well as a head coach for one of its baseball teams. Dennis played baseball at Blufton. He holds a Bachelor's Degree of Exercise Science, Strength and Conditioning with a minor in coaching. 

Vince Licursi. Before being selected as the program's Head Baseball Coach, Vince served as Assistant Baseball Coach at Lake Erie College (NCAA DII) and Cincinnati Christian University (NAIA). While at Lake Erie College, he helped guide a record breaking team to 29 wins and a fourth place finish in the GMAC conference after being picked in preseason polls to place 11th. The Lake Erie Storm baseball team broke numerous single season and career records on route to winning two games in the conference playoffs. At Cincinnati Christian University, in addition to serving as the team's pitching coach, Vince was the lead recruiter bringing in the largest, and most talented class in the program's history.