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Sheriff Finalizes His Staff

| By: WIU Athletic Communications

Sheriff adds Keeran, Snyder, Claus

MACOMB, Ill – Interim head coach Tayler Sheriff has finalized his coaching staff for the 2022-23 season. Sheriff brings in Michael Keeran, Mike Snyder, and Chasen Claus, who have a wealth of knowledge on the diamond.

Michael Keeran will serve as the assistant coach/recruiting coordinator previously coached at Bismark State College, where he served as the head coach. As the head coach, the Mystics had a 67-18 record with two conference championships and a region runner-up. Keeran won the 2022 Mon-Dak Coach of the year, Region 13 Coach of the Year, and the NDAPSSA Coach of the Year. Keeran has also found success coaching Independent and College summer baseball. In the summer of 2022, Keeran was the Head Coach of the Souris Valley Sabre Dogs in the Expedition League. The Sabre Dogs won the regular season & Postseason Championship with a 34-2 Record. Keeran has been named the Expedition League Coach of the Year. 11 players moved on to professional baseball. In the summer of 2021, Keeran coached in the Prospect Collegiate League for the Lafayette Aviators. The Aviators went 45-20 and won the regular season league title. They won both halves of the division championship in the Wabash River division. They were regular season & postseason Eastern Conference Champions. The team took 2nd in the league in the postseason format. Thirteen players from the Aviators moved on to play professional baseball.

Mike Snyder comes in as an assistant coach and is no stranger to the Summit League. Snyder comes to Western after finishing his playing career at Indiana Tech and Purdue Fort Wayne. As a player, Snyder appeared in 193 games where he had a career .300 batting average. In his three seasons at Indiana Tech, Snyder hit 26 HR and had 113 RBI.

Chasen Claus joins the Western Illinois baseball coaching staff after coaching in the Old North State League for the past two summers with a combined record of 36-26 between the Swepsonville Sweepers and the Marion Swamp Foxes. His teams reached the playoffs in both seasons. As a player, Claus graduated from Alderson Broaddus University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sport Management in May of 2021. He was a four-year member of the baseball team. From 2019-2021 Claus started 103 consecutive games split between catcher and first base. He was a 2021 Mountain East All-Conference Honorable Mention and a 2021 Alderson Broaddus Male Athlete of the Year Nominee. In his senior season, he hit .331 and finished with a career batting average of .278 while belting 16 home runs and driving in 91.
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