Lincoln University (Mo.) has hired Albany State assistant Grant Reynolds as its new head baseball coach.
Reynolds will be tasked with breathing life back into a program that was cut back in 2016 due to budget constraints.
Lincoln made the call to bring baseball back in 2022 and announced on January 26, 2023, that it was granted full-time membership in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
The Sydney, Australia native helped to shape the Albany State baseball team into a top-tier SIAC program. Serving as a coach and recruiting coordinator, Reynolds played a vital role in securing the players that helped Albany State field a pitching staff that led the SIAC in six statistical categories and an offense that led the conference.
The Golden Rams went 122-64 in his five seasons at Albany State, including regular season titles in 2019 and 2023.
Welcome to our new head coaches! Grant Reynolds (@lumo_baseball), Sammy Samuels (@lumo_msoc) and Leah Stringer (@lumo_wsoc)! https://t.co/jXJCO6BKjo#WelcomeToTheAmbush #GBT
— Lincoln University (Missouri) Athletics (@GoBlueTigers) June 1, 2023
Reynolds served on a staff that appeared in the Black College World Series in 2022 and 2023.
Before his time at Albany State, Reynolds was the head coach at Ohio Christian University and was an assistant at Wheaton College (Illinois) and Davenport (Michigan).
Reynolds also enjoyed a decorated amateur baseball career, which started at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama as a pitcher, where he posted a 9-1 record with a microscopic 0.97 ERA. Reynolds was named an NJCAA All-American and the AJCCC MVP. He moved on to Kennesaw State where he won Peach Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year twice, South Atlantic Region Pitcher of the Year, and was named an All-American in both his junior and senior seasons.
He was drafted in the 9th round of the 2003 MLB Draft, spending three years in the Oakland Athletics organization before his professional career was cut short by injuries.
