Lane College head baseball coach Donny Crawford collected a milestone coaching victory in winning two of three games this past April 6-7 over Kentucky State University taking game one 15-0 and 12-7 in game three. The 12-7 win marked Crawford’s 300th collegiate career coaching win in his 13 years at the helm of being a head coach.
The Lane College Athletics Department hired Crawford to lead the baseball program just before the start of the 2023 season. Crawford, who previously coached at Stillman College turned that baseball program into a powerhouse over the 11 years he manned the program.
While at Stillman, Crawford had 272 career wins while claiming the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship (SIAC) title and coaching his team to the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournaments in 2007-2009 and 2011-2014. In 2010 and 2015, the Tigers finished as runner-up at the SIAC tournament.
In 2012, the Tigers went undefeated (21-0) in SIAC play while claiming the conference title and another trip the NCAA DII Regionals. The 2012 season also saw the Tigers’ SIAC winning streak grow to 39 games and capture its fifth conference tournament title in the last six years while Crawford was named coach of the year. The Tigers wrapped up the season with wins in the NCAA South Regional for the first time in program history. Stillman was defeated by eventual NCAA runner-up Delta State in the South Region Championship series.
Also, the 2012 Stillman team was crowned HBCU baseball’s national champion, the first in program history, thus securing Crawford’s place among all-time HBCU baseball national coaching champions.
Crawford was an assistant coach at the University of Alabama before being hired in 2005 as the head baseball coach at Stillman where he quickly became one of the top coaches in Tigers baseball history and in the SIAC conference. His tenure included a nine-year streak of 20-plus wins from 2006-2014 which is currently the longest in school history and current in the SIAC.
Crawford was inducted into Stillman’s Hall of Fame class on February 17, 2023, for guiding the Tiger baseball program to unprecedented success.
Since his hire at Lane, he is getting the best out of his players in the classroom and on the field.
In the years I have known Donnie Crawford, I have nothing but respect for him as a person and as a coach for his hard-nose approach to the game and winning, but most importantly, for his way of teaching student athletes about the game, academics, and life.
“I am honored and blessed to have reached this milestone. I never even thought about it or knew how many wins. I’m more concerned about team goals and success. I do want to thank all the players and assistant coaches who’s played a big part in this accomplishment.”
Congratulations, Coach Crawford!