Willie Poe will start his second season as the Pitching Coach for the Patriots.
Poe is a native of Lexington, KY and attended Bellarmine University where he was part of the 2019 GLVC Championship team. He spent his 2018 summer in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League with the Southern Ohio Copperheads. He graduated from Lexington Catholic High School in 2014.
Coach Poe was the Pitching Coach at Oakland City University in 2021 and coached the Dubois County Bombers in the Ohio Valley Collegiate Baseball League this summer. Prior to OCU, Poe was the Pitching Coach at NJCAA powerhouse Indian Hills Community College (Iowa) from 2019-2020 and Iowa Wesleyan University (NCAA).Â
2022 -  UC finished the year 46-16 and 18-6 in conference play, at the end of the season the Patriots was second in the conference and won their second straight MSC tournament to secure one of the Mid-South's automatic bids to the NAIA Opening Round. This season UC was inside the top-10 for every statistics category in the NAIA, while being first in 14 categories. The team was 10th in the NAIA in strikeouts (394), third in Earned Run Average (4.83), second in shutouts (7), and fifth in Batting Average Against (.277). The Patriots had four First-Team All-Conference selections, five Second-Team All-Conference selections, and two MSC honorable mentions.
2023- Cumberlands went 49-9 on the season while setting new program records in severally statistics categories, Homeruns (142), RBIs (569), Runs Scored (616), Walks (313), Wins (49), Strikeouts (549), and Saves (17). The Patriots had three NAIA All-Americans, six First-Team All-Conference selections, seven Second-Team All-Conference selections, and two MSC honorable mentions. Along with Caden Petrey taking home freshman of the year, while Max Harper and Evan St Claire winning gold gloves. The team ERA was 3.64 with a 1.31 WHIP, 549 strikeouts, 17 saves, and a .229 batting average against..Â
