FRANKLIN, Tenn. – For the third-straight year Lincoln Memorial University baseball head coach Jeff Sziksai has been honored by the Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association (TBCA). The 17-year Railsplitter skipper was named 2019 NCAA Division II Coach of the Year during the 2020 TBCA Coaches Clinic this past weekend in Franklin, Tennessee.
 
Sziksai, the 2017 South Atlantic Conference Co-Coach of the Year, led the Railsplitters to their third consecutive 30-win season and third-straight NCAA Southeast Regional appearance last spring.
 
"I am extremely grateful for all that the TBCA does for the sport of baseball in the great state of Tennessee," Sziksai said upon receiving the coach of the year award. "To receive this recognition from them is a great honor. I think every coach that receives this type of award will quickly tell you that is has little to do with their coaching ability and everything to do with the great players within the program and the assistant coaches that have recruited and developed those players. This is truly a team award not an individual one."
 
"I am very thankful and appreciative of all the great players and coaches we have here at LMU," added coach Sziksai.
 
Guiding LMU to a 34-19 overall record and 18-6 league mark in 2019, Sziksai's Railsplitters were the SAC's regular season runner-up for the second time in the last three years. LMU also won a NCAA Regional game for the third consecutive season with a 3-1 win over Mount Olive in the Southeast Regional opener.
 
Taking over a program that went 5-42 in 2003, Sziksai has built Railsplitter baseball into a perennial contender in the highly-competitive SAC and NCAA Southeast Region. Ranking fifth in all-time SAC coaching victories with a 168-150 (.528) career SAC record, Sziksai has led LMU to six 30-win campaigns, three conference tournament titles and four trips to NCAA Regionals.
 
The Asheville, North Carolina, native and former Western Carolina infielder has posted a 441-375-3 (.540) career record at the helm of Railsplitter baseball.
 
LMU begins its 2020 season in only eight days, traveling to USC Aiken for its first series of the year Friday, Jan. 31-Sunday, Feb. 2. The Railsplitters will also take on Claflin University Monday, Feb. 3 in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
 
How to Follow
Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms - @LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram, for complete coverage of Railsplitter baseball leading up to the 2020 season.