Start Date: | 01/25/20 |
End Date: | 01/31/20 |
Registration Opens: | 10/07/19 |
Registration Closes: | 01/30/20 |
Camp Fee: | $100 |
RIT Baseball Academy
January 25th
Registration Fee $100 (includes tee-shirt)
The RIT Baseball Academy is designed to give high school aged players from 9th to 12th grade the opportunity to obtain quality coaching from the RIT Baseball staff. The focus of the academy is to work on all aspects of the game at a collegiate level and is designed for the serious athlete. All campers will receive individual instruction on game fundamentals and sessions will include hitting, positional work, pitching instruction and team competition.
Participants will also have the opportunity to tour the campus with RIT Admissions guides.
Be sure to sign up quickly, as 16 per session is the maximum number of participants for this camp. Positions are limited based on team needs.
Tentative Schedule
WHAT TO BRING:
REFUND POLICY: Full refunds will be given only to those who request them before January 1st. Any refunds requested after January 1st will require a doctor's note. Please allow up to 4 weeks after the conclusion of camp for processing.
Contact Information
Rob Grow
Rob.grow@rit.edu
585-261-5159
Camp Coaching Staff:
Rob Grow, RIT’s all-time leader in coaching wins and 2006 RIT Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, begins his 27th season at the helm of the Tiger baseball squad in 2018-19. Grow enters the 2019 season just 19 wins shy of 500.
In 2017, Grow and the Tigers enjoyed their finest season in program history, winning the Liberty League Championship for the first time, while making their first NCAA Division III Baseball Championship appearance.
Last season, the Tigers won 20 games and advanced to the Liberty League Championship Tournament for the third time in the last four seasons. Nine players earned All-Liberty League honors, while a pair (Brett Bouchard and Patrick Mylott) garnered All-Region accolades.
RIT set single-season program records for most wins (33), highest winning percentage (.785), highest fielding percentage (.973), runs scored (317), hits (432), doubles (105), home runs (23), runs batted in (287), total bases (642), slugging percentage (.452), and walks (191) during the 2017 season. The pitching staff re-wrote the school record book that year with the most strikeouts (319), shutouts (4), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.22), and lowest WHIP (1.19) in program history.
Defensively, RIT was seventh nationally with a .973 fielding percentage and overall, its .786 winning percentage (33-9 overall record) was ninth best in Division III. RIT had two separate 14-game winning streaks as part of a 28-1 run heading into the NCAA Tournament. RIT set a Liberty League record by going 22-1 during the regular season, winning 19 straight contests in league play. A program record 12 Tigers earned All-Liberty League honors, while six were named to the ABCA/Rawlings and All-New York Region team. Grow and his coaching staff were named the 2017 Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year, while Will Gorman was named the Liberty League Player of the Year and Brian Reed was the Pitcher of the Year.
In recent seasons, Grow has coached several players who have smashed countless single-season and career-records, including two-time CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-America selection Justin Smith, who is RIT’s all-time leader in stolen bases.
A member of the Empire 8 conference from 2000-2011, Grow coached 100 All-Empire 8 selections. Since moving to the Liberty League in 2012, 28 different players have earned all-league honors. He has also mentored 31 ABCA/Rawlings All-Stars, including the 2007 Empire 8 Pitcher of the Year, Dylan Rees. Four of Grow’s former players, Colin Bradley, Tim Hern, Andy Schild and Dornes are in the RIT Sports Hall of Fame.
Grow is a 1988 graduate of RIT, where he played three years of baseball for the Tigers as an outfielder. He is among the career leaders in runs scored, walks and on-base percentage. In 1988, he set the Tiger single-season record with a .554 on-base percentage.
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in business, Grow was an assistant coach at Rush-Henrietta High School. In 1990, he helped guide the squad to a Section V title.
Greg Keagle, a former major league pitcher, returns for his 12th season as an assistant coach for the Tigers in 2019, where he will assist the pitchers.
Under Keagle's tutelage, the RIT pitching staff has become one of the best in all of Division III.
The RIT pitching staff developed a level of dominance never before achieved at the university in its record-breaking 2017 season. RIT’s pitching staff set single-season school marks for most strikeouts (319), shutouts (4), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.22), and lowest WHIP (1.19). The pitching staff finished sixth nationally in WHIP, seventh in strikeout-to-walk ratio, 13th with a 3.19 earned run average and 15th, allowing just 8.29 hits per nine innings. RIT’s coaching staff was honored as 2017 Liberty League Baseball Coaching Staff of the Year.
A native of Corning, N.Y., Keagle pitched for Monroe Community College in the early 1990s. Keagle spent 11 seasons in professional baseball. He was a sixth round draft pick of the San Diego Padres in 1993, and in 1996, he made his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers. He went on to pitch three seasons in the majors, appearing in 46 games and making 23 starts.
Tyler Leichtenberger returns for his fifth season as an assistant coach for the RIT baseball program in 2018-19. A former standout with the Tigers, Leichtenberger pitched at RIT from 2011-2014. As a player and a coach, Leichtenberger has been at the forefront of RIT’s rise to prominence since moving to the Liberty League in 2012.
Under Leichtenberger’s guidance, the Tigers won a school-record 33 games, won its first Liberty League Championship and advanced to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship for the first time in 2017. RIT set single-season program records for highest winning percentage (.785), highest fielding percentage (.973), runs scored (317), hits (432), doubles (105), home runs (23), runs batted in (287), total bases (642), slugging percentage (.452), and walks (191). The pitching staff re-wrote the school record book with the most strikeouts (319), shutouts (4), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.22), and lowest WHIP (1.19).
Last season, RIT advanced to the Liberty League Championship Tournament for the third time in four seasons and won 20 games.
Leichtenberger pitched in various roles on the staff during his four years as a starter and a reliever. A two-time All-Liberty League selection, he holds school records for both saves in a season (7) and career (14), and is fourth all-time in appearances (49).
Upon finishing his playing days, Leichtenberger started his coaching career by joining the RIT staff as a graduate assistant in 2015, while also managing his hometown legion team the past three summers. After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering in May 2015, Leichtenberger continued his role on the RIT staff as an assistant coach.