CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois baseball head coach Lance Rhodes announced Thursday the addition of Seth McLemore to his coaching staff ahead of the 2025 season. McLemore comes to Carbondale after two seasons at Appalachian State.
“I’m very excited to welcome Seth and his wife Courtney to Carbondale,” Rhodes said. “As I began the search process, the one name who continually came up as someone I had to speak with was Seth. After the first conversation, I knew Seth was a coach that players would love playing for. His passion for coaching and success has followed him everywhere he has gone. I am excited to work alongside him, and our staff looks forward to building a championship program together.”
During his time in North Carolina with the Mountaineers, he was a part of 63 victories while helping the program to a pair of Sun Belt Tournament Championship semifinal appearances. He saw one player be named a Second Team All-American, two players named All-Region, and four players named to the Sun Belt All-Conference Team. Two Mountaineers were selected in the MLB Draft during his time in Boone.
“I’m excited and grateful for the opportunity to join the coaching staff at Southern Illinois! God has blessed my wife and I unbelievably,” McLemore said. “I want to thank Coach Rhodes for the opportunity to join his coaching staff. I can’t wait to continue building on the successes the program has had under his leadership.”
In 2024 App State broke its single-season home run mark which was set in 2023 with 96 home runs. The Mountaineers also scored the most runs in program history with 484 runs. The team also set records in on-base percentage (.411 – ninth all-time), slugging percentage (.508 – fifth all-time) and hits (576 – seventh all-time).
CJ Boyd broke App State’s career home run record with 35 in two seasons while Banks Tolley broke the single-season record for home runs with 26 en route to being named the Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year, First Team All-Region and Second Team All-American. Austin St. Laurent broke the programs single-season runs mark with 78 ahead of being named First Team All-Sun Belt and Second Team All-Region.
The program set a record for the seventh most wins with 33 while also tying the record for most conference wins with 16 in 2024.
During his first season with App State, McLemore helped lead the Mountaineers to 67 home runs (fourth all-time), 555 hits (ninth all-time), 111 doubles (tenth all-time) and 410 runs scored (seventh all-time), while getting to the 30-win mark for the first time since 2013. McLemore guided CJ Boyd to a First Team All-Conference selection, where Boyd finished with 17 home runs (tied first all-time), 54 RBI and 141 total bases.
Prior to his time with App State, McLemore was an assistant coach at Milligan University, an NAIA program in Elizabethton, Tenn. He helped lead the Buffaloes to a 36-21 record, including two victories in the conference tournament. Under his tutelage, a program-record four Milligan players earned all-conference recognition. The 36 wins were the most for the program since 2009.
McLemore arrived at Milligan after a one-year stop at NCAA Division I Murray State. During the 2021 season, the Racers set a program record with 18 OVC wins to secure the second seed in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. Murray State reached the OVC title game for the first time since 2003 and finished the season with 33 wins, the fifth most in program history.
He spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons as an assistant at Central Methodist University. In 2020, the Eagles were ranked No. 10 in the NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 poll before the season was canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, Central Methodist earned an at-large bid to the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round and finished with a 35-15 record.
McLemore also has experience coaching the Spearfish Sasquatch (Expedition League) and found success as a head coach and general manager in the Beach Collegiate Baseball League.
McLemore played two years at Southwest Tennessee Community College and finished his college career at Central Baptist College in Arkansas. A standout third baseman, McLemore earned all-conference and NCCAA All-America status as a senior at Central Baptist. In 2016, the Mustangs captured the program’s first AMC conference title and set a program record with 45 wins.
A native of Pulaski, Tenn., McLemore earned a Bachelor of Science degree in history from Central Baptist.
