Leary announces changes to baseball coaching staff
Posted: 08/17/2011
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh baseball coach Sean Leary has promoted Ben Krentzman from Director of Operations to assistant coach and the team’s hitting coach.
"I am very excited to announce the hiring of Ben Krentzman as our new hitting coach,” said Leary. “I am confident he will be a great addition to our coaching staff. His knowledge of our league and our program will allow him to hit the ground running."
Krentzman is in his second season as a member of the Lehigh baseball program. Before joining the staff, he served as the hitting coach for three seasons at Bucknell University and then served as the hitting coach at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.
In Krentzman’s tenure at Flagler, the team posted its highest batting average in ten years and broke the school record for total bases. He also helped guide the Saints to their first win over a No.1-ranked opponent since 1993 and their first postseason victory since 2003.
Krentzman will be working with a Mountain Hawks team that led the Patriot League in hitting last season with a .292 batting average. They also led the league with a .375 on-base percentage and a league-low 256 strikeouts.
A 2003 Bucknell graduate, Krentzman will be taking over for assistant coach Brian Hirschberg, who accepted the head coach position at Drew University. Hirschberg spent the last three seasons as Lehigh’s hitting coach and recruiting coordinator.
“Our Lehigh baseball family wishes coach Hirsch the best as he takes over the Drew program,” said Leary. “Brian did an outstanding job the past three years and was a great representative of our program and our university. It gives me great pride to see our program produce another head coach.”
Hirschberg isn’t the first Lehigh hitting coach to take a head coach position. John Kochmansky left after the 2007 season to take over the program at East Stroudsburg University.
The Mountain Hawks have put together back-to-back 20-win seasons and will look to have the same success at the plate in 2012 under the tutelage of Krentzman.