{"id":7755,"date":"2019-12-14T05:28:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T10:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=7755"},"modified":"2019-12-12T15:42:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T20:42:04","slug":"staying-the-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2019\/12\/14\/staying-the-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying the Course"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rodney Hennon Chases Championships and Legacy in the Sun Belt<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This year, Eagles baseball coach Rodney Hennon reached 700 wins, adding another milestone to an already decorated 20-year career helming the team. Over the last four years, however, he\u2019s been chasing a goal that has proven much more elusive \u2014 a Sun Belt Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It hasn\u2019t been for lack of trying. Since their 2015 inaugural season in the Sun Belt, the Eagles have reached the championship finals three times, and won the new East Division this past season after being picked to finish fourth. They battled their way to the championship game against former national champion Coastal Carolina, who came from behind to cinch the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis team did a really good job of bouncing back and really just showing up to play every day,\u201d Hennon said. \u201cI felt like we were playing really good baseball down the stretch going into the tournament, and we were in a good position and unfortunately just didn\u2019t finish it off in that championship game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo it was tough to end that way, but at the same time we did a lot of really good things throughout the course of the year. We had 35 wins playing a very challenging schedule, and the nice thing is, we\u2019ve got a lot of these guys back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eagles enter the 2020 season with almost all of their position players returning to the field, only losing outfielder Tyler Martin, who hit .304 during the 2019 season. Behind the mound, however, Hennon will be looking to fill several crucial vacancies with the loss of senior Cole Whitney, grad transfer Daniel Collins and standout juniors Seth Shuman and Joe Nahas, who both signed to major league teams over the summer. Shuman was drafted by the Oakland A\u2019s and Nahas was signed by the Chicago Cubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really didn\u2019t bring in many position players in this recruiting class,\u201d said Hennon. \u201cIt was more pitching heavy. But we feel like there are some guys that\u2019ll be able to have key roles for us before it\u2019s all said and done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hennon is no stranger to excellence, or what it takes to get there. During his tenure, the Eagles have won five Southern Conference (SoCon) Tournament Championships and made three tournament final appearances. He was named SoCon Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2001, and has an overall record of 790-525-1 in 22 seasons as a coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you ask him about his success, he\u2019ll quickly point to the people around him that make it possible \u2014 coaches, assistants, managers, and even the support of the University and community \u2014 people who will roll up their sleeves and work hard to improve the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you ask Hennon what he wants next for his storied career, he doesn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to win a Sun Belt Championship,\u201d he said. \u201cI told the guys after the last game we just have to stay the course with what we\u2019re doing because they\u2019re doing it the right way. They\u2019re getting better. And if we can continue to move forward and trend in that direction, then the results will take care of themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rodney Hennon Chases Championships and Legacy in the Sun Belt This year, Eagles baseball coach Rodney Hennon reached 700 wins, adding another milestone to an already decorated 20-year career helming the team. Over the last four years, however, he\u2019s been chasing a goal that has proven much more elusive \u2014 a Sun Belt Championship. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":7756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[62],"class_list":["post-7755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-fall-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}