Sept. 4, 2017
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State baseball head coach Rob Cooper has rounded out his staff for the upcoming season, adding Blaise Lezynski as a volunteer assistant coach, he announced Monday.
A native of Newtown, Pennsylvania, Lezynski graduated from Notre Dame in 2015 after playing baseball for three seasons and redshirting as a senior due to injury. He finished his collegiate career as a graduate student at Mercer, helping the team win the 2016 Southern Conference Championship. Lezynski joins the Nittany Lions after playing professionally with the Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League.
"I feel blessed and privileged to return to my home state and join the Penn State Baseball program," said Lezynski. "I am beyond grateful for Coach Cooper granting me this tremendous opportunity to work alongside him, his staff and student-athletes. I am thrilled to compete for championships and be a part of what I believe is the golden age of Penn State Athletics. We Are!"
Lezynski broke into the Notre Dame starting lineup as a junior during the team's first year in the ACC, starting all 53 games and leading the team in batting. He also earned conference academic honors all four years. As a graduate student at Mercer, Lezynski started 41 of 52 games played, ranking fourth on the team with a .303 average. He launched a go-ahead grand slam to lead the Bears to a one-run win over nationally-ranked Georgia Tech, batted .351 over the last 23 games of the season, and went 2-for-3 with an RBI-double in the regular season championship clinching game.
"We are so fortunate to have Blaise join our coaching staff," said Cooper. "He is a high energy guy that has a passion for teaching the game of baseball. He believes in mentoring our student-athletes and his experience playing Division I baseball will allow him to connect with our student-athletes."
Lezynski graduated from Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business with a degree in marketing and pursued an MBA at Mercer. He honed his coaching acumen as a prospect camp instructor throughout his college career, and starting in the summer of 2016, Lezynski served as a manager of operations at Training Legends, LLC, an Atlanta-based startup company managing tournaments and training programs for youth travel league baseball players and teams.
Lezynski has a unique Penn State connection. He and 2016 Penn State baseball graduate Greg Guers played together on the Council Rock Newtown Little League team that won the 2005 Mid-Atlantic region and played in the Little League World Series in Williamsport.