Lenoir-Rhyne University Men's Baseball

Adam Skonieczki was named the Lenoir-Rhyne Head Baseball Coach in July of 2024. This promotion followed a successful five-year stint as both an Assistant and Associate Head Coach for the Bears.  In his first season as head coach, Skonieczki led the Bears to their best season in program history, advancing to the NCAA DII Championship Series in Cary and leading the Bears to a record of 50-15. The Bears set a new DII record with 137 home runs and First Team All-American honoree Mackenzie Wainwright set a DII record with 121 hits in a single season. Skoniecski was named the Perfect Game National Coach of the Year and Wainwright, Sal Carricato, and Cole Stanford all finished with All-American honors. In total, this Bears squad set 15 LR single-season records. From 2019-24 Skonieczki served as both an Assistant and Associate Head Coach for the Bears. During his time as an assistant/associate the Bears never failed to have a winning record, peaking with a 46-13 mark in 2022 that saw LR post a 19-game winning streak and win their third SAC Tournament Title in program history. In five seasons he coached 27 all-conference honorees, six all-region, and one all-american. Prior to coming to Hickory, Skonieczki was the Head Coach at Southern Vermont College from November 2017-June 2019. In his first season at the helm, Southern Vermont finished tied for third place in the NECC and made the playoffs for only the second time in eight seasons. Skonieczki coached six All-Conference performers and one National Player of the Week. The Mountaineers excelled in the classroom as well, posting a team GPA of 3.30.  Before his time at Southern Vermont, he served as the Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at the University of Buffalo for two years. Skonieczki coached two All-MAC First Team players and helped four players get drafted or sign MLB contracts. It was the second stint in Buffalo for Skonieczki who was a standout OF for the Bulls and graduated in 2010. The Binghamton, N.Y. native has his name peppered throughout the program’s record book. Upon graduating, he had registered the second-most games played (193), the third-most hits (231), and the third-most total bases (320). He still owns the team’s top mark of the most runs scored in a game (6) and had the most runs scored in a single season (50) before that was eclipsed in 2010 and then again in 2012. For his career, he was a four-year outfielder for the Bulls—starting in 186 of the 193 games in which he appeared. Skonieczki also held Assistant Coaching positions at Georgetown College and Texas A&M Corpus Christ. At TAMUCC, he helped the squad to a school-record 37 wins and a top-100 finish in the Division I national poll. Three players from that team were selected in the Major League Baseball draft.  Skonieczki and his wife, Shayna, have two children: their daughter, Isla, and son, Cash. Adam Skonieczski Profile: 2024-Present: Lenoir-Rhyne University - Head Coach 2023-2024: Lenoir-Rhyne University - Associate Head Coach 2019-2023: Lenoir-Rhyne University - Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator 2017-2019: Southern Vermont College - Head Coach 2015-2017: University of Buffalo - Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator 2012-2015: Georgetown College (Ky.) - Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator 2010-2012: Texas A&M Corpus Christi - Assistant Coach 2006-2010: University of Buffalo - Student-Athlete

Micha Baumfeld was promoted to Lenoir-Rhyne Baseball's Associate Head Coach in the Fall of 2025. He joined the Bears prior to the 2023 season as their pitching coach after spending 10 seasons as the head coach at Georgetown (KY).  Baumfeld has been instrumental in leading the Bears to national prominence. In 2025 Lenoir-Rhyne won their first ever Southeast Regional Championship and advanced to the national semi-finals. Andrew Harlow set the school record for single-season strikeouts (125) while the team finished second in school history with 562 on the year. The Bears won a school record 50 games in 2025, capping off a three-year stretch of winning seasons with Baumfeld as their pitching coach. He has coached eight All-Conference pitchers in just three seasons. In 10 seasons as the head coach for theGeorgetown (KY) Tigers, Baumfeld led the program to four NAIA Regionals, including the program's first NAIA World Series in 26 years in 2014. The Tigers also won their first ever Mid-South Conference Championship 2014. Overall, Baumfeld went 328-165 (.670) in his 10 seasons, and his teams set virtually every record in the program's history.  Baumfeld was the pitching coach at Georgetown for two years before being promoted to head coach, and when he started as pitching coach, the Tigers' pitching staff was ranked No. 79 in the country. In just two seasons, Baumfeld transformed the staff to reach No. 1 in the nation in 2012, his first year as head coach.  In ten full seasons at Georgetown, Baumfeld coached the first NAIA pitcher taken in the 2018 MLB Draft (Shawn Dubin, Houston Astros), and two First-Team All-Americans. He also had two Honorable Mention All-Americans, two Mid-South Players of the Year, two Mid-South Pitchers of the Year, and 23 First-Team All-Conference players (13 pitchers). Baumfeld is a 2003 graduate of Medialle College (NY), where he was a member of the baseball team. He and his wife Amanda have two sons, Landen and Seaver. 

Michael Allen returns to Lenoir-Rhyne University as an assistant pitching coach after an accomplished playing and coaching career. A five-year pitcher for the Bears, Allen made a lasting impact on the program, setting multiple records and contributing to one of the most successful seasons in school history. During his collegiate career, Allen became Lenoir-Rhyne’s all-time leader in pitching appearances with 83. He holds the program’s lowest opponent batting average (.215) and ranks eighth in career ERA. A key contributor to the 2022 SAC Championship team, he helped Lenoir-Rhyne achieve a program-best 46-13 record. That same season, Allen played a crucial role in setting the NCAA Division II single-season strikeout record with 647, shattering the previous mark of 503. Following his playing career, Allen transitioned into coaching, serving as the pitching coach for Southeastern Community College (2023-2024). In his time with the program, he helped lead the team to a 43-19 record and a Junior College World Series appearance in 2024. Under his guidance, Southeastern was also crowned Co-Champions of the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference. Now back at Lenoir-Rhyne, Allen brings his extensive pitching knowledge and championship experience to the Bears’ coaching staff. As the assistant pitching coach, he is dedicated to developing the next generation of arms, focusing on maximizing performance and continuing   

Blake Bean was hired on as an assistant coach prior to the 2026 season. This promotion followed a year a volunteer assistant in 2025. He coaches outfield and assists in hitting instruction and recruiting.  In Bean's lone year as a volunteer assistant coach the Bears made program history, advancing to the NCAA DII Championship series for the first time ever, coming up one game shy of a national championship game appearance. He was a part of coaching the most potent offense in Division II history, as they were top-ten in the country in 11 different categories. The Bears hit an NCAA DII record 137 home runs and Mackenzie Wainwright broke the NCAA DII record with 121 hits.  Bean played professionally, following his collegiate career, in the United Shore Professional Baseball League (USPBL) for the Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers in 2024. He earned All-Star honors and contributed to the team’s championship-winning season. An accomplished collegiate player in his own right, Bean played two seasons at Lenoir-Rhyne following an impressive four-year career at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. While with the Bears he was a two-time All-SAC performer and sits in Lenoir-Rhyne's career top-ten in four different categories. At Kalamazoo, Bean was a 2022 D2Baseball.com All-American Third-Team honoree, setting multiple single-season school records, including runs (59) and doubles (18). He led the Hornets to their first NCAA Tournament victory during that same 2022 season. Bean is originally from Farmington Hills, Michigan, and now resides in Hickory. 

Brian Coleman joined Lenoir-Rhyne in fall 2024 as a graduate assistant for the baseball program.  During Coleman's summers in college, he interned for the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League as the lead general manager intern, working as a liaison between the players, coaches and organization. While in Falmouth, Coleman was able to learn from one of the Cape League’s most storied coaches, Jeff Trundy, who has accumulated over 500 career wins, and John Schiffner, historic Chatham A’s manager, former assistant coach at the University of Maine and former professional baseball scout. While at High Point University, he also played on the school's nationally-ranked club baseball team, was a High Point Scholar, an inaugural member of Rho Phi Lambda and a Communications Fellow.